Board chairs and staff of host organizations didn’t always begin conferences by hurling insults at audience members. But it’s an annual ritual for Nader Hashemi, chair of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) and professor of Middle East studies at the University of Denver. For the second straight year, Hashemi used his opening remarks at CSID’s annual conference to accuse this reporter of being “a member of the Islamophobia industry.” CSID staffer Mongi Dhaouadi later added that CSID does not consider its annual conference a success unless this author attends.
Held last month at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., CSID’s yearly gathering also repeated its tired apologias for political Islam and downplayed the ideology’s influence in the Middle East and North Africa before an audience of sixty. This doubtless pleased such attendees as Muslim Brotherhood (MB) allies Ermin Sinanović and Hisham Altalib from Herndon, Virginia’s International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), and former Egyptian parliamentarian Abdel Mawgoud al-Dardery from the MB’s flagship Egyptian branch, who came for the luncheon panel. Dale Sprusansky, assistant editor of the Israel-hating Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and Marymount University Professor Daniel Tutt, who expelled this author from a past conference, also attended.
After Hashemi’s introduction, in which he remarked on Muslim-majority countries’ “really disappointing landscape” for democracy, he moderated a panel on “rivalry between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia.” Ignoring past Shiite-Sunni discussions about a recurring history of intra-Muslim conflicts, he rejected a “standard narrative” about a “seemingly intractable hatred between the two dominant sects of Islam that go back to the seventh century.” Even as jihadists rage in Syria’s sectarian strife, he maintained one of his stock claims that the conflict “is really about power and not piety.”
Hashemi found it disturbing that even in the Middle East “increasingly, constituent groups, Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims, buy into this idea” of sectarianism. Apparently, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias, and other Iranian Shiite proxies find inspiration not in realpolitik, but in Iran’s self-proclaimed jihadist theocracy. To “de-sectarianize the politics of the Middle East” is fundamental to Middle East democracy promotion, a goal he absurdly suggested would receive Iranian support.
Similarly, Hashemi’s fellow panelist, National Iranian American Council (NIAC) President and lobbyist for the Islamic Republic Trita Parsi, asserted that a nuclear weapons-seeking Iran is a friend in the Middle East. Advancing Tehran’s line, he claimed that with Iranian partnership “now there is an opportunity to move towards some sort of a balance in the region that actually would have an indigenous ability to sustain itself.” That CSID promoted regime advocate Parsi over Iranian dissidents further undermined various speakers’ emphasis on democracy for Muslims.
Meanwhile, Harvard Berggruen Fellow in ethics Andrew March minimized “political ideology or the interpretation of Islam and democracy,” despite rising Islamic supremacism throughout the Middle East. He found it unbelievable that religion is the “only or even the most important factor explaining the success of democracy so far in Tunisia, the failure of it in Egypt, and the risk of it in Turkey.” Yet his description of Rashid Ghannoushi, leader of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party, as a “particularly democratic thinker within political Islam,” inadvertently demonstrated how faith can endanger freedom.
Based on recent interviews with Ghannoushi, March described the Israel-hating, Hamas-supporting leader’s totalitarian-sounding “perfectionist theory of political life”: “The purpose of political life is to create the ideal conditions for as many people as possible to be the best possible Muslims.” Therefore, government institutions “are meant to be united around certain kinds of moral purposes that are determined by Islam.”
March explained Ghannoushi’s transition since Tunisia’s 2011 “Arab Spring” revolution by citing the leader’s belief that the “state is primarily seen as an agent of harm and thus its own harm should be reduced.” “This is very fascinating,” for “using the state as a means to bring about the Islamic society was the political goal of political Islam for most of the twentieth century.” According to March, the ultimately unsuccessful seventh-century charter that Islam’s prophet Muhammad established for Medina’s communities of Jews, Muslims, and pagans now represents Ghannoushi’s “commitment to a radical kind of pluralism.” His fellow panelist, Ennahda parliamentarian Oussama Sghaier, even claimed that his party members “are moving from political Islam to be Muslim democrats” and a “moderate conservative party.”
Yet, Sghaier acknowledged widespread doubts about Ennahda’s sincerity, and even Hashemi wondered whether “Ghannoushi’s transformation” is merely “something unique to the dynamic of power distribution” in Tunisia. Hashemi observed that Tunisia’s strong secular opposition denied Ennahda a majority mandate for Sharia rule. March agreed that since 2011, Ghannoushi “has to make do with what reality has proposed.”
March provided little reassurance when he described a fickle Ghannoushi, whose “thought has always sort of bounced off what the currents were going on in Tunisia at that time.” He conceded that with a stronger Ennahda, “you definitely would have had a lot of symbolic differences,” such as the inclusion of Sharia law in the Tunisian constitution. Ghannoushi’s recent support of the “knife jihad” against Israel and March’s past willingness to accept Islamic polygamy and speech restrictions, cast doubt on the latter’s minimization of such “symbolic differences.”
But there is nothing symbolic about political Islam, a much greater threat to Western culture than violent jihad. In their quest to “de-sectarianize” Islam, CSID panelists deny both the obvious significance of the Shia-Sunni split and the central role Islam continues to play in traditionally Muslim societies. The insistence of such Middle East studies professors that modern believers have depoliticized Islam by confining it to the realm of personal piety serves only to cloak and therefore empower political Islam – a fact illustrated by the many adherents in CSID’s audience and the sponsor’s continuing displeasure with this reporter’s presence. Under such cover, academics like Hashemi can virtue-signal their concern with “Islamophobes,” confident that campus-based critiques of the House of Islam will remain the rarest of undertakings.
Andrew E. Harrod is a Campus Watch fellow, freelance researcher, and writer who holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School. He is a fellow with the Lawfare Project. Follow him on Twitter at @AEHarrod.
jihad3tracker says
THE 500 POUND ORANGUTAN (MUSLIM INBREEDING) SOMERSAULTS INTO OUR LAPS
Worshippers of bloodthirsty Allah apparently have NO ABILITY to understand how transparent their taqiyya is.
By the way, I intended no disrespect of primates mentioned in that first sentence.
PETA should file a defamation lawsuit at the World Court Of Animal Rights.
jihad3tracker says
NOTE — In the final sentence of Dr. Harrod’s first paragraph, he pays an amusingly sarcastic backhanded compliment to Mongi Dahouadi. A.H. has been a counter-jihad resource during my 7 years of reading Robert Spencer’s blog. Do a search of contributions in the box here.
He taped G.U. Muslim professor Jonathan Brown attempting to contemporize & reframe Islamic slavery as rather benign, saying, in the presentation’s first minutes, “…everything gets recorded…”, and then providing evidence for his inaccuracies.
Jonathan Brown is married to G.U. Muslim professor Christine Fair who uses the internet as an ectoplasmic version of psycholtherapy. WARNING: Do not read read her output if you are operating heavy machinery or supervising pre-kindergarten children.
mortimer says
WHOM DO THEY THINK THEY’RE KIDDING
The real question is this: WHERE IS THERE A CASE WHERE DEMOCRACY, PLURALISM and ISLAM coincide?
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture.
Muslim countries are all low on the scale of electoral process, pluralism, civil liberties, political participation and political culture.
The map of the Democracy Index tells us that European Christian countries score highest.
https://infographics.economist.com/2018/DemocracyIndex/
Andrew Harrod says
No, Brown is married to Leila Al-Arian, daughter of Sami Al-Arian, convicted of supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Fairbanks is not Muslim.
Andrew Harrod says
Sorry, I meant Professor Fair.
jihad3tracker says
Gracias for the correction. My ancient 69 year old brain sometimes goes off-compass in the jihad cyclone.
gravenimage says
Thanks.
jihad3tracker says
THIS LINK LEADS TO ONE OF PROFESSOR FAIR’S TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODES:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/01/06/muslim-woman-who-voted-for-trump-asks-georgetown-to-intervene-over-professors-hateful-vulgar-messages/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.91b3ad043dda#comments
Followers of “Muslim reform movement” news know that Asra Nomani is one of its stalwarts. Several years ago, she was invited by Georgetown University to opine about Islam’s 21st Century intransigence. Such uppity truth was apparently too much for that Muslima gremlin — Professor Fair.
BC says
It is disturbing to say the least Robert that alongside this article is an advert for a site to date Muslim women, Not only would dating a Muslim woman be impossible in the usual sense, as it is forbidden to be alone with one.
But we all know where a relationship with a Muslim woman will end . Conversion to Islam!
J D S says
These many universities, knowingly or unknowingly have hired many Muslim, academics, professors, administrations etc., That how could they help but be inundated by Islamist input into what was once universities that stood out with great expectations now between the liberal,leftist and radical thinking Muslim professors who have indoctrinated, what would have students ready for society, so what
we have now is not what universe were intended for.
DEAR GOD SAVE US FROM OURSELVES!
penelope says
you can’t whitewash a pile of shit which is what islam is. there is absolutely nothing about islam that is endearing or encouraging for one to have a happy life. It is all about control of women, torture of women especially fgm, oppression at every level of women. why would anyone with two brain cells to rub together want any part of it? Allah is a figment of their imagination and has NOTHING to do with the divinity of the universe. these men are delusional who have no brains at all or common sense.
jihad3tracker says
HELLO PENELOPE — Perfectly condensed in your comment above: “Allah is a figment of their imagination and has NOTHING to do with the divinity of the universe.”
I often recommend Dr. David Wood’s videos to JW readers, and here is one which is especially relevant: The Psychology Of Islam – Part 1″.
In that 18 minute video, he explains how Muhammad’s genuinely tragic early childhood pathologically affected his adult mind & emotions. The result was a cruel vindictive “god”, commanding believers to control humans — with a threat of murder if they resisted.
OTHER EXCELLENT VIDEOS by David: “The Jihad Triangle”, “What Is Taqiyya?”, “Three Questions For Moderate Muslims”, “Inside The Kaaba”, “Allahu Akbar — Muhammad’s War Cry”, “Muhammad — The White Prophet With Black Slaves”, “How Muhamad Ali Was Deceived By Islam”.
JUST COPY & PASTE MY TEXT into emails for family, friends, pastors, rabbis, priests, senators + representatives, your local TV news chief executive.
Remind them ALL of the “DIVERSITY” bloodbath slaughter which Islam creates: Our United States (9-11 World Trade Towers / 2970 killed), France, Germany, England, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Africa, Malaysia.
TO ALL JW READERS — Please take a bit of time soon for your own counter-jihad resistance. Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller risk their lives every day to get the warning out. We should also contribute to the effort.
dumbledoresarmy says
“…he explains how Muhammad’s genuinely tragic early childhood pathologically affected his adult mind & emotions.”
But… do we *know* that Mohammed had a tragic early childhood?
What if he didn’t, really?
What if the mohammedan theatre of victimhood began at.. the source?
There is no independent-of-Islam early contemporary witness to give us an outsider’s view of Mohammed’s origins, his family, etc. None. We have to take his word for it, or the word of people who were, by the time they recorded stuff, under his influence/ controlled by the cult.
What if the stories of mohammed suffering rejection/ mistreatment, etc – are… the same sort of thing as so many *other* much more recent Muslim claims of victimhood?
jihad3tracker says
HELLO AGAIN D.D.A. — You raise a fair objection to my assertion.
David Wood — who is usually a doggedly neutral source — seems to be convinced about Muhammad’s early hardship. Please watch Part 1 of his “Psychology Of Islam” video and draw your own conclusion.
jihad3tracker says
HERE IS THE DAVID WOOD VIDEO (PSYCHOLOGY OF ISLAM – PART 1).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wikEctQIRSs
At exactly 14:28, David gives his version of Muhammad’s early life.
I must parachute out of this conversation, to do other necessary things such as paying bills, earning coin, washing clothes, etcetera. Adios friends ! ! !
gravenimage says
Even assuming that Muhammed did indeed have a tragic childhood (assuming that he existed at all)–this is no excuse for his savage legacy. Many have had sad childhoods, and have tried to create something *better* as a result. Not so the creator of Islam…
mortimer says
‘Moderate’ Islam is simply ISLAM WITHOUT FULL SHARIA LAW.
Nader Hashemi seems to think that most Muslims will go for that. In fact, most Muslims around the world 60% or more want FULL Sharia law. Only 35% of Muslims say they DO NOT want Sharia.
Nader Hashemi is talking FANTASY and NO Muslims are following him.
Nader Hashemi wants to show other Muslims that he isn’t a ‘hypocritical’ LAX Muslim by lambasting the DIRTY KUFAAR who are not DHIMMIS.
It looks like his version of ISLAMIC PLURALISM is merely a SHOW PLURALISM and the REALITY of HEAVY CENSORSHIP!
Nader Hashemi is another TWO-FACED TAQIYYA ARTIST.
Ren says
Whitewashing Political Islam is a specialty of a true muslim in order to deceive a non-muslim.
True kafir says
Islam and democracy. A perfect example of a contradictio in terminis.
infidel says
A 101 guide to Islam and Muslims..
This is a short list of points. Go thru it and U will get a good idea as to why Muslims behave in the way they always do and why they are involved in trouble all over the world.
Before U disagree, at least think and relate..
1> In any group, even in hardcore democracies. Muslims ALWAYS demand special treatment.
2> Any Muslim feels victimized and discriminated if he is not given special treatment.
3> And this stems from the fact that Muslims believe that Islam is always in danger if it is not allowed to dominate even when it is in minority
4> Even an uneducated Muslim feels superior to the most accomplished non-Muslim
5> This stems from the Koranic edicts that the worst of Muslims are better than the best of non-Muslims. Even a terrorist Rohyigya will feel better than a Hindu like Tendulkar
7> This also leads to the Muslim sense of entitlement in that they demand things from the Khafir (non-Muslim ) and yet will not harbor any sense of gratitude. U can see this demonstrated all over the world at various Muslim troublespots…
8> The biggest crime in the Koran is NOT ACCEPTING ISLAM. That is why for a Muslim, even a criminal terrorist like Dawood Ibrahim is superior to even the best of law abiding non-Muslims. Also, Muslims do not recognize the merit of non-Muslims.
9> Islam does not recognize the land and properties (and that includes women too) of non-Muslims
10> Which means, any land of a non-Muslim is OCCUPIED TERRITORY which Islam has every right to conquer and plunder. And this land could be even Antartica or any other territory where Muslims may never have even set foot in history. No wonder, Islamic nations are always in battle with non-Muslim nations, esp neighbors, over endless land disputes.. See Kashmir, Palestine..
11> However, these land disputes are just an excuse for the greater jehaad where the WHOLE infidel country will be conquered and plundered.
12> Islam does not recognize the marriages of non-Muslim. So any Muslim feels that he can hit on even married non-Muslim women and make them his.
13> Any non-Muslim culture before Islam is considered JAHILYA or ignorance….Only Islam is true knowledge. That is why Muslims are averse in recognizing their non-Muslim origins.
14> In any country where they are in minority, they do not believe in nation building as that would strengthen the non-Muslim land. The Hadiths prohibit this. Only those acts are permitted that weakens the khafir.
15> No Muslim leader talks about jobs, tech, progress, reg the infidel land.. It is always Sharia for them.
16> Islam is a very political system and Muslims are very political in nature. In any org they work, their actual output will be very less but their political wheeling and dealings will be enormous. Very soon they will worm themselves to positions of power/influence in that non-Muslim org. See how Ahmed Patel controls the Congress.
17> Muslims punch above their weight in politics when they are minority by a factor ranging from 3 to 5 depending on how strict the non-Muslim society is in dealing with them. The more tolerant the host, the more violent and virulent their demands and their effects.
18> Even at a minuscule 3%, they have a political power of up to 15%. And once they reach anywhere from 20 to 30%, the non Muslim political power base is finished off for good… See Kerala and WB..
19> Muslims always make sure that their issues always hog the limelight in any society. Elections are fought over their rights and immigration like in our country and Eu. The UN is forever occupied by the Palestine and kashmir problem. So even if U are not a Muslim, they will make sure that their issues are of concern to U. But they RARELY BOTHER about Ur (non-Muslim) issues other than making lip service if pressed to. See how minorities suffer in countries like Pak and Bangla.
20> To top this all.. Muslims believe that all the above things that they do is JUSTIFIED!!! So there is no chance of reform either, And if U say anything in this regard, U will be labelled as an Islamophobe and a bigot.
Cicero says
Well argued infidel . You seem to know Islam intimately .
Please post of the jihad struggle in India . We all need to know more about the non Muslim experiences in the East
KJW says
You hit on many main points, especially that the biggest crime is not accepting Islam; Muhammad (or the Quran writers) was obsessed with this.
Your point about land entitlement is right on. Bat Ye’or expands on this on her book: It’s called “wakf”, and that is the idea that the world is Allah’s territory. The very existence of disbelief is an aggression against Allah and we non-Muslims are to blame for the wars caused by our opposition to Muslim conquest; if we had not resisted the massacres wouldn’t have happened. Peace with non-Muslims is only when we convert or submit as dhimmis. We bear all the guilt, which, of course, is ridiculous to us. Logic and rationality or twisted rationalizations started with Muhammad making an excuse for his men attacking the Meccans’ caravan and killing one on the holy day…that it was wrong, but worse than that is people being deprived of da’wa and Islam. As you point out, these ideas have infected Muslims’ minds and gives many of them a false or unearned sense of superiority. That might fuel their latent inferiority as Islamic countries have been the least productive and not offered much to the world in modern times.
E.g., in the 1950s, Saudi Arabia had only one plant, some bakeries…barely no businesses and relying on oil. According to a documentary in the 2000s, they said only 300,000 Saudis are truly educated out of ~30 million people. The Saudis are the biggest driver of Islamization and Arabization. Same with Muhammad who did not have control of the Ka’aba business nor did his community have much business. It seems like they farmed and were not merchants like the Quraysh, the wealthy preIskamic Nabateans in Petra who created pools on the desert through an engineered pipe system marveled by engineers today. So, Mu pirated.
Yet, as you said about jahiliyyah, the Nabateans are of “the Days of Ignorance” as we would be too…we who discovered and developed their oil!
A cleric from Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan said last year that invading isn’t mostly about stealing resources, land and what the kuffar built, but spreading Islam to achieve their idea of peace even though they’ve never had peace amongst themselves. It’s so twisted and they appear not to know or care how it’s to their detriment as demonstrated over centuries. Triumph may satisfy them temporarily but that won’t last. All the massive mosque funding around the world is like a lion utinating around its territory. Then they have to “liberate” the Muslims in infidel lands who are being deprived of their “human rights” to dominate with Islam and Muslims being superior to others. How Muslims can reconcile these antiquated ideas and it not being fair, pluralistic, diversity and knowing people don’t want Islam but secularism…well, they appear to feel no guilt.
The biggest threats of Islam are lack of self-determination to choose your way of life, morals, solve your own problems (adultery, relationships, control drinking wine yourself, how you dress, etc) and lack of free expression, false blasphemy charges, and censorship and banning many things that drive our economy. Also, the destruction of UN-Islamic things…art, nude Greek and Roman statues, music, etc. KSA does have music now and pop too, but not like ours, rock, lyrics, etc. A million Brazilians attended a Rolling Stones concert and their music is un-Islamic. They suppress people’s natural inclinations, say, Little Richards’s music that sprang out of the Gospel Church, people painting portraits, etc. Theae things should be stressed to American leftists by showing the contrasts of Islamic countries and what they don’t have nor produce. However, to Muslims that makes their latent inferiority complex fester, thus this propaganda about their accomplishments from the past or noting Muslim lawyers, scientists. etc., many of whom were educated by the West and especially Muslims born here. To them it’s Muslim Muslim Muslim. I didn’t learn in school Christian Thomas Edison patented the lightbulb, but rather American Thomas Edison or British Charles Darwin, et al.
*Bat Ye’or’s book “Europe, Globalization and the Coning Universal Caliphate” is very illuminating. It’s expensive but I bought a used paperback copy. Also, Andrew Bostom’s book “The Legacy of Jihad Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims.” 2005. The later paperback has an updated foreword and Amazon gives you the first 70 pages on Kindlr when you buy the book. Pricey, so I bought a used hardcover for $14.00.
gravenimage says
Fine post.
duh swami says
I’m convinced that Allah really doesn’t believe what he wrote in his book, and I’m relieved to see that Muslims don’t believe it either…
Karen says
“Hashemi observed that Tunisia’s strong secular opposition denied Ennahda a majority mandate for Sharia rule.”
Tunisia, a very interesting country, has managed a balancing act for many decades now. While it officially promotes Islam in its constitution as the state religion, the religious class officially promotes ‘common sense’ over Koranic rulings when the later seem undesirable. This is why Tunisia is more democratic, and why a return to fundamentalism, through means such as the Arab Spring, threatens democracy.
Karen says
latter
Jedothek says
I would like to congratulate Andrew Harrod on his courage in attending a conference at which he is predictably surrounded by crazed liars.
gravenimage says
Apologists on Parade: Profs Whitewash Political Islam
………………………..
Standard operating procedure in academia now from Muslims and dhimmis. *Ugh*.