A rchive Date
[ 30-07-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/leishman.html
It's time to get educated about Islam
By RORY LEISHMAN -- London Free Press
October 16, 2001
On Sept. 20, FBI agents showed up at the house of Imam Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in northern California, planning to interrogate him about his links to Islamist terrorists.
"He's not at home," his wife said. "He's with the president."
Sure enough, Yusuf was at the White House, the only Muslim among a group of religious leaders who had been invited to pray with President George W. Bush for guidance in dealing with the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Yusuf said: "Hate knows no religion. Hate knows no country. Islam was hijacked on that Sept. 11, 2001, on that plane as an innocent victim."
Yusuf is director and founder of the Zaytuna Institute and Academy, a Muslim school near Oakland, Calif. He is one of the most prominent Muslim teachers and speakers in the U.S.
Since his White House appearance, Yusuf has been a busy man.
On Sept. 23, CBC Radio broadcast an extensive interview he gave to Michael Enright. And on Oct. 8, Yusuf was in Britain addressing religious leaders at the House of Lords.
The Guardian newspaper noted he, "is fast becoming a world figure as Islam's most able theological critic of the suicide hijacking."
How could the FBI suspect this acclaimed exponent of peace is linked to Islamic terrorists? Alas, the explanation is all too evident. Until recently, Yusuf has been decidedly less than a peaceful exponent of Islam.
Consider an address he gave in Irvine, Calif. on Sept. 9, just two days before the terrorist attack. He was speaking to a rally in support of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a Muslim cleric previously known as H. Rap Brown, who has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a sheriff's deputy in Atlanta on March 16, 2000.
Yusuf claimed Al-Amin is, "a man who by necessity must speak the truth. That is a dangerous man. Within this government are elements who will do anything to silence the truth. They'll assassinate either the person or the character."
In support of this claim, Yusuf cited the case of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric and associate of Osama bin Laden who was convicted of sedition and sentenced by a U.S. court to life in prison in a plot to bomb Manhattan's Lincoln and Holland tunnels.
"That sheik was unjustly tried, was condemned against any standards of justice in any legal system," Yusuf said.
No doubt, the FBI paid particular attention to Yusuf's warning in this speech that, "This country is facing a very terrible fate.
"The reason for that is that this country stands condemned. It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned because of what it did. And lest people forget, Europe suffered two world wars after conquering Muslim lands."
Enright seems to have known nothing about this speech. Certainly, he did not raise the issue in his interview with Yusuf. He did ask: "we've heard fundamentalist Islam or Islamic militant. What do those words mean?"
Yusuf said: "Yeah, I think an adjective that goes with Islam is dangerous. 'Militant Islam' I think is very dangerous. I would say it's oxymoronic. So the idea Islam is a militant religion is a dangerous concept to put forward."
Enright seemed to understand.
"OK, I take your point," he said.
At the end of the interview, he asked: "Do you think there's a possibility that out of all of this, North Americans -- people like me who know nothing about Islam or the Koran -- can come to some understanding. Is that too dreamy-eyed?"
Yusuf replied: "I don't think it is too dreamy-eyed and I think it's an absolute necessity, Michael, I don't think we have a choice anymore."
Enright, of course, is not the only North American journalist who knows little about Islam. It's urgent all of us get educated.
Where can we turn for sound information? A prime resource is, The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years, by Bernard Lewis.
Readers with access to the internet should also check out www.islamicsupremecouncil.org -- the Web site of the Michigan-based Islamic Supreme Council of America headed by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, an exemplary Muslim moderate who has received numerous death threats for daring to speak out against hate-mongering extremists like Yusuf and bin Laden.
Write Rory at The London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1 or fax 519-667-4528 or E-mail.
Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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