This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1088
September 16, 2005
MIM: The Dialouges group is intended to 'give the Muslim point of view' and receives funding from Qatar, whose chief cleric Yusuf Qaradawi issued a fatwa condoning women suicide bombers. Qaradawi is banned from entering the US bacause of ties to terrrorism. Qaradawi also ruled that the women who intended to commit suicide could go out without a male escort and did not need to cover their hair if that would facilitate the attack.
MIM: The Mission statement of the NYU Dialouges is "largely focused on Muslim claims and viewpoints" so what better way to find out more from Yusuf Qaradawi of Qatar, whose government (of which he is an employee) is helping to fund this endeavor. Al Qaradawi recently gave an interview to BBC which can be read below in which he praised "martyrdom operations". Qatar is listed as one of the dialouge funders but Qaradawi who has a popular television show in Qatar epitomises the countrie's view of Islam.
http://www.islamuswest.org/aboutUs.html
OUR Mission
A program of New York University, Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West was established in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, which highlighted the urgent need for greater communication among and about the Islamic World, the United States, and the West. With the attacks focusing the world's attention on extremist movements in the Middle East and Islamic Asia, political commentators have been seeking, and often failing, to explain the political and social roots of these movements and their accompanying grievances against the West and the United States. The program has been launched as a structured forum for sustained dialogue involving voices from the various religious, intellectual, economic, and political sectors of Islamic and American/Western societies, including those non-elite Islamic figures with proven credibility in their communities who are too often unheard in the West. Dialogues is largely focused on Muslim claims and viewpoints, as well as on efforts to understand various Islamic social and political movements. But the program also involves a discussion of the Western value system, for true dialogue cannot be constructed as a one-way street.
Dialogues is committed to a number of academic, policy, and outreach activities, including conferences on a variety of topics of critical importance today—the clash of perceptions, elections, the nature of authority in the Islamic world and in the West, Muslims in the West, the role of the media, and education, among others. These will result in the development of policy recommendations; government leaders and other relevant authorities and organizations, including media decision-makers, will attend the meetings in order to both help effect policy change and alter public perceptions. In addition, findings from the program will be published as policy papers as well as in book and possibly CD-ROM form and will be disseminated to educational institutions worldwide for use by students, faculty, and researchers. Moreover, Dialogues is creating a network of leaders who will continue to communicate with and consult one another formally and informally for years to come—a valuable network for negotiating peace in times of crisis. Ultimately, dialogue should extend to the general population, thus allowing the widest possible scope of participation and expression.
Dialogues is funded by Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The conference in Granada received additional funding from El legado andalusí. The Amman Workshop on Islam and Elections was funded in large part by Majlis El Hassan. We are pleased to announce that the state of Qatar has joined the ranks of our funders.
With the situation in the Middle East more critical than ever, Dialogues' work is crucial to world peace and security. Through dialogue, Muslim and Western community leaders can dispel the current climate of anger, check extremist trends, and lay the foundations for a more comprehensive and lasting peace through mutually beneficial interaction.
Board of Advisors
Lisa Anderson (U.S.)>
Mohammed Arkoun (Algeria/ France)>
Hoda Badran (Egypt)>
John Brademas (U.S.)>
Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France)>
Reis-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric (Bosnia)>
Viscount Etienne Davignon (Belgium)>
Richard Haass (U.S.)>
HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal>
Tony Judt (U.S./U.K.)>
Farooq Kathwari (U.S.)>
Bob Kerrey (U.S.)>
Maleeha Lodhi (Pakistan)>
Nurcholish Madjid (Indonesia)>
Chandra Muzaffar (Malaysia)>
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (U.K.)>
Farhan A. Nizami (India/U.K.)>
Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia)>
Seyed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour (Iran)>
Eduardo Serra Rexach (Spain)>
Frank Wisner (U.S.)>
Mortimer B. Zuckerman (U.S.)>
funding institutions
Carnegie Corporation>
The MacArthur Foundation>
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund>
El legado andalusí >
Majlis El Hassan >
State of Qatar >
Dialogues Staff
Mustapha Tlili, Founder and Director>
Shaanti Kapila, Special Assistant to the Director>
Shara Kay, Editorial Consultant >
Danielle Jefferis , Intern >
Contact
Dialogues: Islamic World–U.S.–The West
New York University
Remarque Institute
194 Mercer Street, 4th floor
New York, New York 10012
tel 212-998-3656
fax 212-995-4091
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MIM: According to Islam for Today Qaradawi is one of the 'most temperate Islamic speakers'. The Qatari funders of the NYU Dialouge group can be expected advocate and adhere the same Islamist beliefs which Qaradawi, as their chief cleric, espouses.The article boasts that "Dr. Qaradawi's wrtings have found general acceptance among all sectors of the Muslim world" which implies that no country can afford to doubt that there are suicide bomber wannabes waiting in the wings.
Dr. al Qaradawi is considered one of the most temperate Islamic thinkers, and as one of those who combine traditional knowledge of the Shariah with an understanding of contemporary problems (fiqh al waqi'). Indeed, Dr. Qaradawi's writings have found general acceptance among all sectors of the Muslim world, and many of his works have been translated into various Muslim and other languages..." http://www.islamfortoday.com/qaradawi.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3875119.stm
Al-Qaradawi full transcript | |||
Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi is an Egyptian cleric who greeted his audience in London with the words "peace - the message of Islam." But in an exclusive interview with Newsnight he spoke of suicide bombings by Palestinians as "martyrdom in the name of God." The row over his visit has overshadowed the Home Secretary David Blunkett's attempts to re-introduce a measure to outlaw incitement to religious hatred. Peter Marshall reported on the man, his message, and the reaction. PETER MARSHALL: MICHAEL HOWARD MP: TONY BLAIR: MARSHALL: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI MARSHALL: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI MARSHALL: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI MARSHALL: MUFTI BARKATULLAH: MARSHALL: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI MARSHALL: KEN LIVINGSTONE: MARSHALL: YUSRA KHREEGI: SYED TOHEL AHMED MARSHALL: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI REPORTER: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI REPORTER: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI REPORTER: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI REPORTER: SHEIKH YUSEF AL-QARADAWI MARSHALL:
This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors. ---------------- Controversial preacher with star statu http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3874893.stm Islamic preacher, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, to take part in a conference has sparked a row because of his controversial views on suicide bombings. Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi achieved a star status with the emergence of the Qatari satellite channel, Al-Jazeera, several years ago. Thanks to his weekly appearance on the religious phone-in programme Al-Shariaa wa Al-Haya (Islamic Law and Life) he has become a household name for many Arabic-speaking Muslim communities. He is an articulate preacher and a good communicator. The subtext of the programme, and indeed that of Sheikh Al-Qaradawi's responses to all the issues raised throughout the broadcast, is that Islam has an answer to all of life's problems. That is essentially the ideology of Islamist movements across the region.
According to an Arabic language website dedicated to Sheikh Al-Qaradawi he was born in a small village in the Nile Delta in 1926. He studied Islamic theology at the Al-Azhar university in Cairo, from where he graduated in 1953. Twenty years later he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on how Zakat (Islamic alms) can contribute to solving social problems. Muslim Brotherhood He has written extensively on Islam and is regarded as a respected scholar. His website describes him as the most prominent voice of moderation in Islam (wasatiyya), building bridges between traditionalists and modernisers. It is his involvement with the outlawed Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that has landed him in trouble. The group, founded in the 1920s, is one of the largest and most influential Islamist organisations in the region. It has a history of violence, but now says it is committed to peaceful means to create an Islamic state. Sheikh Al-Qaradawi has been jailed several times in Egypt. But he has lived and worked in the Gulf State Qatar since 1963 where he now heads an Islamic research centre. Suicide bombings It is particularly his views on suicide bombings that has courted controversy, but mainly in the West. He has distanced himself from suicide attacks in the West but he has consistently defended Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis. Recently he told Al-Jazeera that he was not alone in believing that suicide bombings in Palestinian territories were a legitimate form of self defence for people who have no aircraft or tanks. He said hundreds of other Islamic scholars are of the same opinion. In this respect, he is very much in tune with what the vast majority of people in the Arab world believe. Defending suicide bombings that target Israeli civilians Sheikh A-Qaradawi told the BBC programme Newsnight that "an Israeli woman is not like women in our societies, because she is a soldier. "I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an evidence of God's justice. "Allah Almighty is just; through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have and and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do". Despite his popularity, Sheikh Al-Qaradawi is not without his critics in the Arab world. Some see his regular preaching on Al-Jazeera as an uncritical regurgitation of Islamic dogma out of touch with the modern world. ----------------------------- |
MIM: Shakedown 101: NYU's Muslim Student Alumni Association held a career workshop which focused on how Muslims could force their employers to meet their religious needs and legal means of forcing them to comply. What has escaped the bright lights of the Muslim Student Association at NYU is that most employers who know about CAIR's shakedown tactics might rightly feel that they had better avoid trouble in the first place by not hiring a Muslim to begin with. Which would be the subject of another course entitled: Advanced Shakedown: How to sue for discrimination upon not getting hired when your boss objects to your implementing shari'a in the workplace.
http://alumni.icnyu.org/events.html
ICNYU - Events
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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1088