Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April/May 1999, pages 108-110

Muslim-American Activism

CAIR Organizes Panel Discussion On Religious Minority Rights

The rights of religious minorities around the world were considered at a Capitol Hill panel discussion organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group, on Jan. 25, 1999. The seminar focused on challenges faced by Muslim minorities in Europe and the U.S.A. and allegations of slavery in the Sudan.

Dr. Yvonne Haddad, professor of history at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, discussed the globalization of Islam and the return of Muslims to the West. Though there are 18 million Muslims in Europe and the Americas, “the political process in the West has not yet digested this phenomenon,” Haddad said. She added that one reason the West has been unable to accommodate Muslims is that the Western national identity perceives Muslims as the enemy, and Muslims themselves perceive the West as intolerant of Islam.

Dr. Haddad argued that issues of security and cultural identity are two major concerns shared by Muslim immigrants and their host countries. The stereotype portraying Muslims as terrorists does not allow them to melt into the new society, Haddad explained. Other stereotyping issues, such as intolerance of the West toward Muslim women wearing head scarves (hijab), have also contributed to the conflict that exists between the West and Islam. “Cultural identity is a by-product of where Muslims live and the way the state treats them,” Haddad said.

Professor of African Studies Sulyman Nyang of Howard University in Washington, DC discussed implications of the continuing conflict in Sudan for creating one Sudanese identity. Conflicting regionalism, ethnicity, and religion all are components of the Sudanese conflict that have led to the absence of solidarity and the inability to create one Sudanese identity, Nyang said. “The Sudanese should come together and strengthen one Sudanese identity.”

Nyang criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East and described it as “inconsistent” regarding support for democracy and freedom. “It is for Muslims themselves to fight for freedom and democracy and we hope that the Sudanese people will get their act together,” he concluded.

More than 60 people attended the panel discussion, which was held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

—Raja’ M. Abu-Jabr

Bonior Exhorts Muslims to Get Involved in Political Process

At a combined meeting of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Greater Houston chapters of the American Muslim Alliance on Feb. 20, Congressman David E. Bonior (D-MI), the House Democratic Whip, advised Muslims to become actively engaged in the U.S. political process. He was visiting Arlington, Texas at the invitation of Sharia Scholars of North America (SSANA).

Bonior recalled his visit with Dr. Mazzen Najjar, a university professor incarcerated in Tampa, Florida for two years without charges under the Secret Evidence Clause of the Anti-Terrorism Bill of 1996. Of 26 persons imprisoned under this act, 24 are Muslims, indicating that the bill is used selectively, and leaving no doubt that the primary targets are Arabs and Muslims, Bonior said. He said he had met three additional Muslims threatened with seizure of their green cards, entitling them to reside in the U.S. while applying for citizenship.

Bonior said he was carrying a letter from Najjar’s teenage daughter, an American citizen, to President Clinton. Bonior previously has taken Najjar’s case to Clinton and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, and intends to take it to Attorney General Janet Reno.

Bonior referred to the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing in which the public mistakenly suspected Muslims, and said it was time that such stereotyping stopped. In earlier years native Americans, African Americans and Japanese Americans have also been victimized. He added that Representatives Tom Campbell (D-CA) and John Conyers (D-MI) intended to introduce a bill in the House to rescind the Secret Evidence Clause under which the federal authorities can detain resident aliens without trial for an indefinite period—a violation of constitutional rights.

Congressman Bonior was asked about the resolutions passed by both houses of Congress calling upon President Clinton to oppose the declaration of a Palestinian state if the May 4 deadline for completion of the Oslo accords final status negotiations passes without an agreement. Bonior suggested Americans should write, telephone, or fax their representatives in Congress saying that this resolution amounts to a violation of the basic rights of the Palestinian people under the U.N. Charter and norms of international law.

Also, he said, Muslims should engage with members of city councils and state legislatures and should utilize the media by writing letters to the editor.

Bonior noted that he had voted against the Anti-Terrorism Bill and against sanctions against Iraq. Asked if Muslims could appear to give testimony on such issues before congressional committees, he suggested that it would be better if an organization sent a delegation.

Bonior’s attention was also drawn to the Roving Wiretapping Act of 1998, under which the FBI can tap the phone of anyone suspected of having links with foreign intelligence and terrorists, or of friends of such suspects, without a warrant.

Asked about self-determination for Kashmir, Bonior said it was a difficult situation with 600,000 Indian troops in Kashmir. The congressman said the U.S. is not engaged actively as a broker in the problem, and that nobody wants to get involved. He said the nuclear stand-off between India and Pakistan is also worrisome, though both have promised to sign the comprehensive treaty to ban nuclear testing. Bonior also told his Texas audience that he had discussed lifting sanctions against Iraq with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan en route to Amman to attend the funeral of King Hussain.

Among those who attended the combined Texas AMA chapters meeting were AMA Texas chairman Ambassador Syed A. Ahsani, Shawkat Kadri, Hasan Ali, Ibrahim Habib, Abdul Rahman Amjad, Zubair N. Haq, Naseer Ahmad, Zeya Patel, Mustafa and Seema Tameez, Radwa Bou-Sayed, Mahmoud Share, Ali S.Ali, Saleem Khand and Ashraf Abbasi.

—Syed A. Ahsani

Daniel Pipes at UASR Roundtable

New ground was broken at the United Associates for Studies and Research’s ongoing roundtable series in which Western observers of the Muslim world engage in a dialog with Muslim intellectuals and activists. Daniel Pipes, editor of the pro-Israel Middle East Quarterly and a harsh critic of the Islamist movement, was the featured speaker at the most recent event in the series on Feb. 3 in Falls Church, Virginia.

Pipes entitled his presentation “Islamism: a Critique.” His principal thesis was that Islamism is just another Western ideology with no important roots in traditional Islamic thought.

His explanation for this paradox is that traditional Islam was a religion of success. Since the humbling of the Muslim world typified by Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt, Muslims have had to cope with trauma in ways that brought about a sequence of successors to traditional Islam: secular, reform, and now ideological Islam. He argued that most of the present regimes in Islamic countries are of the reform variety, with an attitude that one should look to the West because Muslims will only be taking back what they once gave to the West.

He depicted the Islamists as challenging that outlook with the view that problems in the Islamic world are solved not by becoming secular, nor by borrowing from the West, but by rejecting it for Islamic ways. Describing this as an entirely modern attempt to return to the past, he argued that Islamism is not represented by the Taliban or by Khomeini. Rather, Islamism is a Western-style radical utopian ideology based on the faith of Islam.

Members of the audience, composed mostly of Islamists, rejected Pipes’analysis, although for different and possibly conflicting reasons. Pipes, too, replied with seemingly conflicting responses.

When Mukhtadar Khan of Georgetown University challenged the concept that the Islamic resurgence poses a threat to the West, Pipes replied that he sees Islamism as “a dysfunctional ideology that will not work.” When another questioner cited Pipes’ well-known warnings against Islamism as a serious threat, he responded that he urges the United States government to take a “tough position” on Islamism because it is an ideology the U.S. government opposes.

Asked by African-American human rights activist Mauri’ Saalakhan for a comment on the arrest without charges of Algeria’s elected parliament member Anwar Haddam (who was never allowed to take office), Pipes replied that he does not see Haddam “as a face of moderation.”

The reaction of the session moderator, Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, was the thought that to demand that the winners of an election must be the “face of moderation” in order to be safe from arrest without charge constitutes a declaration of war on democracy. He did not have the opportunity to voice that thought as the session was cut off abruptly. Although the session started 15 minutes late, Pipes expressed fatigue and requested that the session stop at the scheduled time.

—Ahmad Yusuf

American Muslim Council Holds Retreat

The American Muslim Council (AMC) executive committee board of directors, advisory board and some prominent Muslim leaders and activists went on a retreat March 6-7 to review, revamp and refocus activities of the Washington, DC-based political lobbying group. Retreat sessions were chaired by newly elected AMC president Dr. Nazir Khaja, assisted by newly appointed executive director Aly Ramadan Abuzaakouk.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways to “empower American Muslims” and prepare the AMC to serve and guide them in the next millenium. Participants cited the need for a long-range Islamic political road map, and urged that immediate attention be paid to participation of Muslims in elections 2000.

The group reviewed the contemporary political environment in which North America’s ethnically and geographically diverse Muslim organizations and institutions operate, and the means by which their activities might be better coordinated to make a difference in the coming national elections.

Also discussed were activities to better coordinate the activities of immigrant and indigenous Muslim populations; encourage and involve a Muslim younger generation and also close the gender gap in rank-and-file activities, and improve AMC’s media access.

The retreat also fine-tuned the draft program of the coming Eighth Annual AMC Convention (May 6-9) in Washington, DC.

—M.M. Ali

“Pakistan at 2000” Examined

In a program moderated by president Shahzad A. Chaudhry of the Pakistan Muslim League (U.S.A.) metropolitan Washington, DC chapter and co-sponsored by the Pakistan United Front, guests at a Jan. 24 dinner program in Alexandria, VA considered “Pakistan at 2000.”

Principal speaker at the program was political counselor Masood Khan of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, DC. Mr. Khan, who before transferring to Washington was assigned to the Pakistani mission to the United Nations in New York, offered a searching examination of Pakistan’s accomplishments and problems in its first half-century of existence, and the challenges facing the country in the 21st century.

He also had high praise for the roll of Pakistani Americans, led by medical doctor Dr. Nasim Ashraf, who lives in the Maryland suburbs of the U.S. national capital, in raising $1.5 million to complete the production of a full-length feature film, “Jinnah,” depicting the life of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and now revered in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam (the Great Leader). The film had its premier showing in the U.S. national capital under sponsorship of the Embassy of Pakistan one day prior to the Alexandria program.

Other speakers included executive editor Richard Curtiss of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, who discussed Muslim empowerment in the United States. He cited two successful examples of use of the U.S. political system. One was the financial support provided by Pakistani Americans to the successful senatorial campaign of former Rep. Tim Johnson of South Dakota against incumbent Sen. Larry Pressler, sponsor of the “Pressler amendment” which halted all U.S. foreign aid programs in Pakistan.

Another accomplishment which Curtiss cited as “a miracle of Muslim-American organization” was the shift in a state-wide electoral endorsement by Muslim organizations in New Jersey in 1996. The groups, representing a significant Muslim voting bloc in the state, initially endorsed Republican Dick Zimmer, running for an open senatorial seat. When Zimmer subsequently slighted the Muslims, they shifted their bloc endorsement to his opponent, Robert Torricelli, who won by a narrow margin which he attributed to the Islamic groups. Since then, Curtiss pointed out, Torricelli has informed himself about Middle Eastern issues, with the result that he has adopted more moderate and thoughtful stands.

Attorney Mowahid H. Shah, a member of the DC bar who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, called upon U.S. Muslims to “be informed, for your own self-defense” because “our weakness empowers our enemies.”

Urging each of his listeners to “be a team leader,” he explained that among his fellow American Muslims “there are plenty of leaders, but very little leadership. There are plenty of brothers but very little brotherhood.” Urging greater coordination and effort, he said “we must shun the attitude that truth and justice will prevail just because it is truth and justice.”

He deplored especially Muslim absence from the American media. “There is no Muslim writer in America who writes in any major newspaper,” he said. “We are not here to become second-class citizens. Anti-Muslim stereotyping has to stop.” Concluding, he brought his message close to home for his Pakistani-American audience. “If the Pakistani community is weak,” he said, “the Muslim community is weak.”

—Donna Bourne