Militant Islam Monitor > Satire > Muqtedar Khan - faux moderate : Laments Muslim position as"conquerers" and ambitions for Islamisation of US setback after 9/11
Muqtedar Khan - faux moderate : Laments Muslim position as"conquerers" and ambitions for Islamisation of US setback after 9/11
Muslims in America set the groundwork for a United States of Allah
March 27, 2006
MIM: What part of Islamic Society of North America and Muslim American Society didn't you understand?
In 2003 'faux moderate' Muqtedar Khan lamented that 9/11 had been a setback for the Muslims to change America into the United States of Allah.
The 'mission statement' of the Muslim American Society is in it's name .(see below)
The Muslim American Society merged with the Islamic Circle of North America and promotes Islamisation of the United States through Da'wa. (see below).
After all, in the decade before the events of Sept. 11, Islam was one of the fastest-growing religions in North America. Mosques and Islamic schools were going up in every major city. Groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Alliance established chapters in nearly every area with a Muslim population.
Muslim leaders, once a frustrated and marginal group, found themselves being courted by politicians, the news media and foreign governments seeking their support and influence. Indeed, many Muslims believe it was their votes that made the difference in Florida, making them primarily responsible for placing President Bush in the White House.
At the time, the word that best summed up the Muslim sense of self was "fateh" - a conqueror. Many religious and community leaders were convinced that Islam would not only manifest itself in its truest form in this country, but would also make America - already a great power - into a great society. Some even proclaimed that one day America would be an Islamic state.
On Sept. 11, of course, that dream evaporated.
"...Just like other ethnic groups before us, we have to pay our dues to this nation before we demand that they change themselves and the world for us..."
At the Islamic Society of Greater Charlotte, North Carolina, members of a Muslim Girl Scout troop recite the scout pledge as well as a Muslim prayer after their meeting
MIM: Life but not as we know it- The U.S. government has decided to awards special privledges to Muslims by extolling the Muslim way of life on their official website.No other religious group was portrayed in this way. Even more disconcerting is that the logo of the U.S. government website is almost identical to that of the Muslim American Society's magazine. MAS and ICNA are linked to Al Qaeda.
September 7, 2003 Putting the American in 'American Muslim' By MUQTEDAR KHAN
To listen to an audio version of this article click here.
ASHINGTON - Muslims in America. American Muslims. The difference between these two labels may seem a matter of semantics, but making the transition from the first to the second represents a profound, if somewhat silent, revolution that many of us in the Muslim community have been undergoing in the two years since Sept. 11.
On its face, this shift would seem to threaten the very core of Muslim identity and empowerment. After all, in the decade before the events of Sept. 11, Islam was one of the fastest-growing religions in North America. Mosques and Islamic schools were going up in every major city. Groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Muslim Alliance established chapters in nearly every area with a Muslim population.
Muslim leaders, once a frustrated and marginal group, found themselves being courted by politicians, the news media and foreign governments seeking their support and influence. Indeed, many Muslims believe it was their votes that made the difference in Florida, making them primarily responsible for placing President Bush in the White House.
At the time, the word that best summed up the Muslim sense of self was "fateh" - a conqueror. Many religious and community leaders were convinced that Islam would not only manifest itself in its truest form in this country, but would also make America - already a great power - into a great society. Some even proclaimed that one day America would be an Islamic state.
On Sept. 11, of course, that dream evaporated. Today, the civil rights environment has declined drastically with the passage of the USA Patriot Act and other antiterrorism measures. Both sources of Islam's growth - immigration and conversion - are now in jeopardy, and we continue to face hostility and prejudice in many corners of society. There is no more talk of making America an Islamic state. Any reminder of this pre-9/11 vision generates sheepish giggles and snorts from Muslim audiences.
Yet adjusting to the new political and social realities of life in the United States these past two years has also had unexpected and positive effects for many Muslims. We have been compelled to transform ourselves to connect more intimately with American mainstream society.
Today, many Muslims realize that it is not their Islamic identity but their American citizenship that is fragile. Before Sept. 11, Muslims in America focused primarily on changing United States policy toward Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq. Since Sept. 11, the attempt to reconstitute our identity as American Muslims is making domestic relations - and civil rights and interfaith relations - more important.
Much of this is playing out at the local level. In Miami, for example, efforts are underway by a group of progressive Muslims to endow chairs in Islamic studies at American universities. In the Muslim community in Duluth, Minn., fund-raising has begun to support social services, including housing and health care initiatives for the poor. In Indianapolis, Muslim residents are opening soup kitchens. And think of the familiar advertising campaign by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which Muslims announce, "We are American and we are Muslims." It is not without design that "American" is stated first.
Even more vital, many Muslims in this country have come to acutely understand the vulnerabilities of minorities and the importance of democracy and civil rights. Because we took our American citizenship for granted, we did not acknowledge its value and virtues. But now that it is imperiled, the overwhelming desire of many Muslims is that America remain true to its democratic and secular values.
This summer I addressed the National Imams' Conference in Washington and spent a week in the Sierras with 400 American Muslims. I had extended conversations with participants. Both leaders and ordinary Muslims seem to be possessed with a strong desire for change and self-transformation. These were some of the frequent sentiments that I heard:
"America is our home, we will not become foreigners in our own homeland." "Islam is about invitation and peace, not conflict." "We have to take back Islam and also win back the hearts and minds of Americans."
It is unfortunate that American Muslim identity is being reconstructed under duress. But it can still be a meaningful and transcendent experience. The aftermath of Sept. 11 may have shattered some dreams, but it has also forced us to reconnect with reality and empower ourselves.
There is still much progress to be made. We need to continue to demonstrate that Muslims in this country constitute an ethical and philanthropic community that cares about humanitarian causes, about America and Americans and stands for justice and rights as embodied in the Constitution. Just like other ethnic groups before us, we have to pay our dues to this nation before we demand that they change themselves and the world for us.
But Americans, too, must play a role. They cannot allow events overseas to foster anti-Muslim sentiments and Islamophobia at home. They must recognize the insecurities and fears of their Muslim neighbors and extend a hand of friendship and support. The choices we face are tough, but Muslims must realize that the interests of our sons and daughters, who are American, must come before the interests of our brothers and sisters, whether they are Palestinian, Kashmiri or Iraqi. Only then will Muslims in America become American Muslims.
Muqtedar Khan, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, is author of "American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom."
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MIM: Qutb's book milestones is regarded as one of the leading radical Islamist idealogues.
Khan's gushing admiration recalls his mawkish eulogy for Arafat.
"...Qutb, true to his preachings died for the values he espoused. He was sentenced to death and hanged by a military court established by Nasser. I think, and Qutb would agree, writing Milestones was his jihad against the jahiliyya that he saw all around him....
A Fresh look at Sayyid Qutb's Milestones By Muqtedar Khan
Sayyid Qutb is easily one of the major architects and "strategists" of contemporary Islamic revival. Along with Maulana Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, the revivalist movement in South Asia, and Imam Khomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, he gave shape to the ideas and the worldview that has mobilized and motivated millions of Muslims from Malaysia to Michigan to strive to reintroduce Islamic practices in their lives and alter social and political institutions so that they reflect Islamic principles. Milestones was written to educate and motivate the potential vanguard of the re-Islamization movement.
Qutb, like most contemporary mujaddids, Islamic revivalists, was distressed with the growing distance between Islamic values, institutions and practices and the emerging postcolonial Muslim societies, specially in his native Egypt. In Milestones, he sought to answer some of the fundamental questions such as why Islam needs to be revived? why no other way of life is adequate? What is the true essence of an Islamic identity and an Islamic existence (he uses the term "concept" to signify these two elements)? How was Islam established by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his companions? Can the same method, which was undoubtedly divine in its conception be replicated again? Qutb is particularly concerned with this issue of "Islamic methodology". He believes that Islamic values and the manner in which they are to be realized (read as were realized by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his glorious companions) both together constitute the faith of Islam.
Relying entirely on the Quran, Qutb uses the concepts of jahiliyya, Islamic concept, Islamic methodology, jihad and Allah's sovereignty, to dilineate the strategy by which Muslims would: 1. realize the true significance and implications of La-ilaha-illallah, having faith in the exclusive unity of Allah (tawhid). 2. understand the imperfections, injustices and moral poverty of jahiliyya. 3. empower themselves by realizing the meaning of ashhadu-anna-muhammadur-rasoolullah (bearing witness that Muhammad is Allah's messenger) -- internalizing his method of da'wah and submitting to the will and laws of Allah. 4. Through this Islamic methodology, as articulated in the Quran and manifested in the practices of Prophet Muhammad, which does not separate theory from practice, and discourse from action, establish an Islamic order. The Islamic order, which is Allah's most significant gift to the entire humanity. 5. The most remarkable aspect of Qutb's book is his insistence on an approach in ‘stages' and the repeated assertion that the need for implementing Islamic law would not arise until every member of the community had completely submitted to the sovereignty of Allah and by that agreed to live under Allah's laws. Laws would then be framed merely to serve the needs of this ‘living community of Islam'. A far cry from the perception that a handful of Islamists are out to impose an essentialized shariah on all Muslims and non-Muslims living in Muslim lands.
Jahiliyya, as used in the traditional Islamic sense suggests ignorance in the ways of God. However, Qutb gives an interesting twist to the idea of jahiliyya. Jahiliyya for Qutb is the sovereignty of man over man. Socio-political orders where men have power over other men, to institute legislation and determine principles of right and wrong conduct. The Quran is explicit in postulating Islam as the antithesis of jahiliyya. Qutb, by redefining jahiliyya to encompass modern secular systems of political organization, is basically decreeing that all existing systems are unacceptable and even antithetical to the spirit of Islam. Thus the dichotomy, Islam and jahiliyya includes both the Islamic and the anthropocentric way of doing things, and Islamic regimes and the existing unIslamic regimes in Muslim lands. A clever ploy that uses Islamic reasoning to indirectly condemn contemporary political organizations as antithetical to Islam.
His notion of the sovereignty of Allah as opposed to the sovereignty of man is basically a restating of the meaning of Islamic faith -- submission to the will of God. It clearly suggests, that any principle of organization that is not premised on God's supreme and sole prerogative as a legislative source, is shirk. Shirk, in Islam is the only unforgivable sin. It means to associate other Gods with Allah thereby denying the fundamental article of faith, la laha illalah, there is no deity but Allah. He also uses it to declare the ‘universal declaration of the freedom of man on earth from a every authority except Allah' (p. 48). I have already discussed his idea of the Islamic concept which basically emphasizes the inseparability of knowledge and practice. It is an important insight which means that one cannot really understand Islam fully unless one is also practicing it. Islamic methodology is his interpretation of how Prophet Muhammad realized the Islamic ideal. He believes that any other way of approaching Islamization is destined to fail.
His understanding of the obligation of jihad -- struggle in the path of Allah -- is also a significant departure from traditional understanding. He understands jihad as taking many different forms depending upon the stage of development of the Muslim community. Thus at the earliest stage it implies struggling to assert the principle of tawhid against all odds. Further along the journey of Islamization it means defending the communities right to ‘freely practice Islamic beliefs' even if it entails the use of arms. He challenges the ‘defensive' constitution of the duty of jihad and argues that jihad is a mandatory proactive activity that seeks to establish Allah's sovereignty on earth. He is however careful to emphasize that it does not necessarily mean the use of violence, it includes preaching use of service and wealth in the way of Allah. He is also careful to remind his readers that there is no compulsion in Islam. But if someone has chosen to live by it then no one has the right to prevent him from doing so. Jihad, for Qutb is both, the defense of the right to believe and live by Islam and also the struggle to establish Allah's sovereignty. Qutb, true to his preachings died for the values he espoused. He was sentenced to death and hanged by a military court established by Nasser. I think, and Qutb would agree, writing Milestones was his jihad against the jahiliyya that he saw all around him.
(This review is based on the ATP edition, Indianapolis, 1990.) Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Assistant professor of political science at a liberal arts college in Michigan. He writes on International Relations, Globalization, Foreign Policy and Islam. Dr. Khan also maintains an E-zine on Islam and Global Affairs: http://www.ijtihad.org
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What is MAS?
The Muslim American Society (MAS) is a charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational, not-for-profit organization. It is a pioneering Islamic organization, an Islamic revival, and reform movement that uplifts the individual, family, and society.
When and where it all started?
The Muslim American Society (MAS) traces its historical roots back to the call of the Prophet Muhammad ( Peace be upon him). Its more recent roots, however, can be traced to the Islamic revival movement which evolved at the turn of the twentieth century.
This movement brought the call of Islam to Muslims throughout the globe to reestablish Islam as a total way of life. The call and the spirit of the movement reached the shores of North America with arrival of Muslim students and immigrants in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
These early pioneers and Islamic movement followers established in 1963 the Muslim Student Association (MSA) of the U.S and Canada as a rallying point in their endeavor to serve Islam and Muslims in North America. Other services and outreach organizations soon followed, such as the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Islamic Medical Association (IMA), the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) and the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA), to name a few.
Twenty years later, Islamic movement followers and sympathizers in North America launched the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) as an outgrowth of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) to serve the needs of the ever-growing number of indigenous and immigrant Muslims who had opted to reside permanently in North America.
Since its inception, ISNA, and other organizations affiliated with it, worked diligently with those who were to become the founding members and future leadership of MAS, towards the advancement of the cause of Islam and Muslims in North America.
Mindful of the dynamic changes that are taking place within the Muslim community and its surroundings, and keeping an eye on the future, a number of Islamic workers and Islamic movement followers decided in 1992, after a painstaking measured and tedious process of soul-searching and consultation, to launch the Muslim American Society (MAS) in order to complement the work accomplished over the last three decades, and to lay the ground for the Islamic effort needed to face the next century's challenges.
Objectives
To present the message of Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims, and promote understanding between them,
To encourage the participation of Muslims in building a virtuous and moral society,
To offer a viable Islamic alternative to many of our society's prevailing problems,
To promote family values in accordance with Islamic teaching,
To promote the human values that Islam emphasizes: brotherhood, equality, justice, mercy, compassion, and peace, and
To foster unity among Muslims and Muslim organizations and encourage cooperation and coordination amongst them.
MIM: An ICNA MAS joint conference theme was intended to help Muslims "face the challenges of Da'wah work and life in North America", in order to help them "live, act , and behave as concious Muslims in the sea of liberal America".
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THOUSANDS OF MUSLIMS TO CONVENE IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT FOR THE ANNUAL JOINT CONVENTION OF THE ISLAMIC CIRCLE OF NORTH AMERICA (ICNA) AND THE MUSLIM AMERICAN SOCIETY (MAS)
Insha Allah, the gathering is expected to be one of the largest Islamic conventions of the year, it will draw Muslims from across America.
This year's theme is Family: The Foundation of Our Society.
Various national and international Islamic scholars will address the convention attendees. Their presentations will focus on topics ranging from 'building strong families in the changing times' to 'establishing family friendly society'.
Other highlights include:
lectures and interactive workshops on Islamic life
parallel youth conference
interfaith programs
ethnic food
special children events
extensive marketplace with over 250 vendors
This is the meeting where Islamic workers get their stimulation for another year to face the challenges of Dawah work in North America.
This is the place where Young Muslims come together to share their experiences of one whole year and learn some more tools to face the challenges of the life in North America.
This is the occasion when Muslim sisters join each others hands once again to strengthen their bond of Islamic sisterhood and make sure not to give in to the so called 'glamorous' and 'independent' life of North America.
This is the place where Muslim brothers/sisters bring their resources together to strengthen the community.
In organizing this convention, as in all our work, we are committed to fostering an environment which reflects, supports, and celebrates our collective diversity in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, class, ability, spirituality, life experience, and point of view. In this diversity, ICNA creates a rainbow of unity of thoughts and actions, as how to live, act and behave like conscious Muslims in the vast ocean of liberal America.
Taking part in Cleveland, Ohio's pioneering tax-funded school voucher program, the first-grade class at Islamic School of Oasis learns about geography. (Photo by Steve Liss/TimePix)