Nate Walker, the Religious Freedom Center’s executive director at Washington, DC’s Newseum, recently praised the TAM Group’s “extraordinary work on rectifying extremist behavior and ideologies” among Muslims at an August 7 seminar there. Yet critical examination of TAM’s leaders and their Made in Saudi Arabia approach to “Countering Extremism” only begs the question of why anyone like Walker would support these Salafist wolves in moderates’ sheep clothing.
TAM’s director, Abdul Haqq Baker, has already created scandal in his native United Kingdom through his leadership of Street UK, a group supposedly countering extremism among British Muslims. The British government in 2011 cancelled a grant to Street UK after its ties became known to anti-Semitic and extremist Salafist clerics who, among other things, had denounced religious freedom proponents as “enemies of Islam.”
At the Newseum event, Baker expressed concern over “very, very dangerous terminology” such as reference to nonviolent extremism that “marginalizes orthodox, socially conservative, practicing Muslims.” Meanwhile, he described Muḥammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the 18th-century founding father of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic orthodoxy, as a “religious reformer” who would “refer back to essential tenets of the religion.”
Joe Bradford, an “American scholar of Islam,” similarly emphasized at the Newseum concerns that officials in the United States or elsewhere would prioritize Islamic interpretations according to the precepts of free societies:
The government is playing favorites and re-reading their religion through national security contexts….When the individuals that represent religious authority in the community are seen as puppets or compromised then we cannot expect those who would lean towards radical beliefs to confide in them.
Yet Bradford’s background as a graduate of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic University of Medina (IUM) gives pause concerning his Islamic authenticity. As Britain’s Guardian newspaper has written, this university is the “leading center for the study and export of Salafi ideas” and “long been known as a recruiting ground for fighters” of global jihad. Bradford himself has written that “Islamic discussions of politics are centered on creating and sustaining ‘pious dictators’” and that therefore the Islamic State “is about as Islamic as all the ‘Islamic’ nations opposing it.”
More disturbing is Bradford’s fellow IUM graduate and Newseum speaker, Tahir Wyatt. His TAM leadership profile proudly notes that a 2012 Saudi royal decree appointed him “as the first person to teach Islam in English at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, the second holiest site in the Muslim World.” “Islam is intrinsically moderate,” he has previously said, yet he worries about Muslim progressives distorting Islam. For example, reformist interpretations of Islam that would claim a bikini could satisfy hijab covering requirements might allow jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda (AQ) similar interpretive leeway to justify their violence.
Wyatt’s “intrinsically moderate” Islam will appeal to few non-Muslims with his arguments that Muslims should not initiate peace (salaam) greetings with non-Muslims. He has also written that Muslims may utilize a non-Muslim court only if its law “does not contradict Islam” in a dispute and he has cited a sheikh declaring that “elections and Parliaments are not Islamic.” Wyatt has also noted sharia prohibitions on men wearing silk and gold and argues that nothing may be worn “with the intention of imitating non-Muslims.”
Wyatt’s admonitions about Muslims entering non-Muslim houses of worship are particularly disturbing. “It is impermissible for a Muslim to enter upon disbelievers in their places of worship since it increases their numbers,” although a Muslim may enter these places of worship “for a legislative benefit…or something along those lines.” Therefore, Muslims may “enter churches in order to invite the people there to Islam. However, entering them just to look around should be avoided.” His statements provide a cautionary perspective on Bradford’s past inflated assertion that “[r]espect for other people’s texts and respect for other people’s traditions is a part of sharia.”
Despite such illiberal beliefs, TAM staff at the Newseum predictably echoed the TAM website’s statements that no one has “anything to fear from the religion of Islam,” despite “fallacious claims made by various ‘Jihadi’ groups.” Kareem Abdus-Salaam denounced the “all-infamous radical Islamic terrorism” as among terms that “seek to vilify a religion.” Bradford argued that many involved in jihadist terrorism, although highly educated professionals like engineers, lacked “religious literacy.”
By contrast, TAM member Newseum comments reiterated hackneyed arguments indirectly refuted by Bradford that violence among Muslims results from societal and political failings. IUM graduate Mohamed Hussain emphasized a “transfer from generation to generation” of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in his Somali community descended from refugees. Wyatt stated that most Muslims “are radicalized through political grievances,” while Muslims “view ourselves as facing a degree of persecution in the West.”
The TAM website reflects these themes of Muslim victimhood with headlines like “ARE YOU ANGRY AT THE NON-MUSLIMS.” “It causes us all great pain to see Muslims abused, scapegoated, oppressed, ridiculed, treated inhumanely and even killed. None of this is acceptable in Islam,” states one website section. “This empathy is required of every true believing man and women.”
Yet the “resulting manifestation of this empathy is not always correct,” the TAM website adds as a caveat, even though TAM’s description of jihadist motivations sounds positively glowing. “Does the idea of blowing yourself up in the name of Allah and dying as a martyr have a special ring to it?” the website asks. Nonetheless, the website cites general Islamic canons against suicide (although jihadists consider suicide bombing a legitimate act of “martyrdom” in war, and not suicide at all) and notes that Islam provides a “prescription for every situation.”
TAM’s complete hollowness becomes apparent in yet another Saudi connection, TAM’s resident expert on “deradicalization,” Fahd bin Suleiman bin Ibrahim Al-Fuhaid. He is a graduate of and the former Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, a Saudi university with numerous radical alumni. “Shaykh Fahad Al-Fuhaid is teacher in Saudi Arabia’s deradicalization program where he helped individuals transition away from the toxic, extremist ideology,” his TAM profile proclaims.
The sheikh seems a disturbing choice for a “deradicalizer” given his past sectarian pronouncements on Islamic doctrine such as his 2012 statements at a British mosque. “Jihad is something which is the highest part of Islam, the highest level of Islam,” he said, although the legitimacy of such religious warfare depends upon specific criteria. He also said that the word kafir (infidel) could only describe Christians and Jews, but not Muslims in disagreement amongst themselves.
The sheikh exemplifies the failings of Saudi Arabia’s jihadist rehabilitation program along numerous other similar initiatives in countries like France and Indonesia. As a 2010 RAND study noted, “mainstream Saudi scholars and extremists share common assumptions and methodologies of Quranic interpretation that lead to the justification of violence.” Therefore, Foreign Policy noted in 2016 that the sheikh’s fellow “counselors reportedly seek less to disabuse imprisoned militants of their hard-line views than to reinforce the primacy of the Saudi state in determining the appropriate use of violence.” Not surprisingly, a jihadist detained by American authorities at Guantanamo Bay once declared that the Saudi program merely directs jihadists into Saudi Arabian service.
The jihadist rehabilitation program has had correspondingly meager success, as the Saudis admitted in 2010 that “as many as 10 to 20 percent of those released may return to illicit activity,” including many current AQ leaders. Even this success among a mere 231 released detainees from a total 3,033 detainees who have participated in Saudi rehabilitation programs, the Council on Foreign Relations noted, entails a not easily replicated “heavily resourced” program. This “relies heavily on after-care elements like monitoring by security forces and parole-like reporting requirements, financial support for detainees after release, and ongoing contact with both the individual and his family.”
Moreover the Middle East Institute noted in 2015 that the “effectiveness of the rehabilitation campaign is limited mainly to minor offenders and jihadist supporters and sympathizers who may already be looking for a way out of jihadism.” Such individuals “still might be radical enough to spread their beliefs to others.” One French-Iranian expert accordingly concludes that the “only option for dealing with hardcore jihadists is to lock them up.”
TAM will most likely replicate Saudi and other failures abroad in “rectifying extremist behavior,” contrary to Walker. Additionally, individuals like him, a homosexual who became the Unitarian Universalist Church’s first openly gay minister in 2007, should not undermine a free society’s principles of human dignity with TAM’s harsh Islamic orthodoxy. Public and private institutions such as the Newseum with its plush luncheon conferences should follow the United Kingdom’s lead towards Baker and stay away from the TAM Group.
D Austin says
What also begs the question is why the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a liberal, Alabama-based 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization is pushing millions of dollars to offshore entities.
Southern Poverty Law Center Transfers Millions in Cash to Offshore Entities
http://freebeacon.com/issues/southern-poverty-law-center-transfers-millions-in-cash-to-offshore-entities/
Oliver says
Have you ever heard the term “money laundering “?
One possible reason
D Austin says
Ohhhh, like the Hillary Clinton Slush Fund, uh, I mean Clinton Foundation.
Oliver says
Exactly. Also BCCI if you are old enough to remember it.
Jimmy Carter’s Treasury Secretary. Bert Lance was involved with that.
D Austin says
It’s about money by hook or by crook…
Hillary Clinton charging big bucks for book tour events
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/31/hillary-clinton-charging-big-bucks-for-book-tour-events.html
Monty says
The spelling is wrong. It should be “nauseum”. There is no moderate Islam. Some Muslims are moderate but they ignore the core teachings of the Koran by a neat reinterpretation of the Koran’s statements. They also ignore Mohamed’s actions. And once Islam is entrenched and in control, watch the “moderates” evaporate.
Louis Schwartz says
Monty says: “There is no moderate Islam. Some Muslims are moderate but they ignore the core teachings of the Koran by a neat reinterpretation of the Koran’s statements. They also ignore Mohamed’s actions. And once Islam is entrenched and in control, watch the “moderates” evaporate”. Monty, I have said these same words on “Jihad Watch” many times. So, needless to say, I am in total agreement with you.
Pam says
Hasn’t Mr. Walker heard of Taqiyya yet? Time he educates himself on Islam and does some research on these Muslims he is going to praise so he doesn’t keep looking like an idiot.
Lydia says
In the not too distant future, the only form of ‘extremism’ they will be coming for is us, for rejecting and exposing the lies and speaking the truth instead. You’ll see.
FYI says
Do they not yet know about mo?
sahih muslim 3901
It is really awkward..
jak says
So shi* for brains prevails.
John A. Marre says
The left loves Islam because Islam is a political movement that works to make itself the only political system in every country on Earth, and in the process, will eliminate the influence of Christianity.
mortimer says
Those who oppose freedom of religion, oppose freedom of expression and oppose Israel get funded and praised. Those who support them are demonized, slandered and defunded.
The world is now upside-down.
Andy says
You can say that again mortimer about the world being upside-down.
It is just terrible what is happening from people trying to shut people up for telling the truth about Islam to some people thinking they are entitled to take (steal) anything they want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DA427-AuKs
Louis Schwartz says
Mortimer: So True. Another core belief I treasure.
gravenimage says
Washington, DC’s Newseum Welcomes Salafists
……………….
Repulsive.
Beth says
Good article. Expose, expose, expose!!!!