Posted on 07/05/2008 9:00:56 AM PDT by nuconvert
Exclusive: Islamism and the So-called ‘Muslim Voting Bloc’: Shades of Theocracy
M. Zuhdi Jasser
July 4, 2008
The modus operandi for the political empowerment of Islamists in America is in full public display during every election cycle. The sad part is few realize how central "Islamic politics" is to the driving force of transnational Islamism and its threat to American security. The incessant attempts by American Islamist groups (like the MAS, CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, ICNA to name a few) to collectivize Muslims in the body politic - from voter registrations to their ideological grievance mill - point to their goals.
What better way to push forth a quasi-theocratic political agenda than to deceive the Muslim faithful into believing that their political survival as a minority in America depends upon the mixture of their faith identity with their political identity? These same Islamists spread the ideology of victimization and identity politics among any Muslims who will listen while they internally promote political Islam and Islamist statecraft within the ummah (Muslim community). They use their efforts at Muslim electoral involvement to exploit the spiritual ummah for political purposes. Most importantly, many in the mainstream media (MSM) and government turn to them to purportedly speak for the American Muslim population, even though they have no mandate or significant membership to do so.
The fact is that they (the Wahhabi lobby working in tandem with for what all practical purposes appears to be the international Muslim Brotherhood network) only speak for their memberships, organizations, and donors while certainly not representing the majority of American Muslims. But, what better way for them to cultivate future Islamists than to teach them and non-suspecting American media and government that the faith of Islam is intertwined with their political activism?
Forget party affiliation when they can indoctrinate their Muslim brethren that the Muslim ummah should become their political platform for societal and legal change and division. The mission is clear - first, build a political Muslim identity which drives the activism of American Muslims in their sway. Then, once that bond is created, slip in the agenda of political Islam driven by a domestic and foreign policy agenda which favors the interests of Islamists in government over other ideologies. Motivating a Muslim ‘bloc vote' is based upon this paradigm of Islamism for the Islamist minority.
Minority politics and the Islamist Agenda in America
In Western nations like the United States where Muslims are a small minority (less than 2% of the population) in a free election system where the laws of the land are secular, Islamist organizations must be far more cunning. They have quickly co-opted the propaganda of victimology and identity politics in order to collectivize American Muslims under their Islamist banners and exploit the grand deception that Muslims are monolithic. Forget the diversity of political opinions within the Muslim community. Forget the wide spectra of political ideology in both domestic and foreign policy with which devout Muslims may agree or disagree. The Islamist movement depends upon the motivating propaganda of victimology and identity while dismissing any genuine ideological debate on issues vital to America first.
Since 2000, these same eleven American Muslim organizations have set out to empower a "Muslim voting bloc." They then formed the American Muslim Political Coordination Committee-PAC. Back in 2000 on the heels of their lukewarm endorsement of then-Gov. George W. Bush they, along with many other ‘American voting blocs', went on to claim credit for President Bush's narrow victory. This year, the same PAC is moving toward a similar strategy claiming that the three priorities for Muslim voters are civil rights, a fair immigration policy, and ending the war in Iraq. This is clearly an Islamist agenda focused on victimology, identity politics, and the advocacy of Islamist interests in Iraq and abroad.
Talk to non-Islamist Muslims not affiliated with these organizations and you will find an agenda which more closely mirrors that of general America - the economy, health care, and national security. The Islamist agenda is simply to exaggerate their Muslim grievance mill so that candidates who are loath to be identified as anti-Muslim will divert the attention of the nation completely away from the national security problems associated with various Muslim ideologies contained within the global movements of political Islam. Again, gone is any discussion of an approach nationally to the forces of global political Islam - other than appeasement.
The Deception of Islamist Collectivism
This Islamist agenda will certainly peak the interests of national media who love a story which pigeon holes voters into bite size demographics - like the "Muslim voter." Sadly, this deception, no matter what the poll data says about how Muslims vote, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy a decade in the make due to the unbalanced Islamist influence in American mainstream media and foreign Muslim media rather than from any real manifestation of Muslim ideologies. The logic of the Muslim voter is no different than the logic of a Christian voter in a nation which is majority Christian. Certainly, Islamists as a subset of Muslims, who are politically and theocratically-driven Muslims, are a relevant discussion during elections and from a national security perspective. But again, most Muslims are not Islamists. Rather, they look at political issues based upon the political platforms of established American party politics and ideologies - not Islamist politics.
Islamism feeds upon this toxic mixture of religion and politics. It is fueled by the ideologies spewed from the political mosque, pulpit, and imam. Islamism derives its nuclear energy from a much deeper desire to ultimately implement Sharia (Islamic jurisprudence) in government whether covertly or overtly. From the international Muslim Brotherhood, to the global metastases by petrodollars of Wahhabi ideology to the national manifestations of Islamism in the eleven groups of the AMT-PAC these organizations are all about the political empowerment of the Islamist agenda in national politics much more than they have anything to do with the personal faith of Muslims.
A typical example is the electoral antics of the Muslim American Society. Mahdi Bray, for example, stated the following after the victory of James Webb in the Virginia senate race of 2006:
"We delivered 80 percent of the eligible voting Muslims to the polls," Bray said in July at an Islamic Circle of North America-Muslim American Society convention in Hartford, Conn. "48,000 Muslims voted in Virginia. 93 percent of them voted for Webb, seven percent voted for Allen. Webb won by a slim margin of 9,000 votes. Now I don't care how you slice it, dice it and I don't care whether you are a mathematician or not, you can figure this out, that if 48,000 Muslims voted and 90 percent of them voted for the successful candidate, then certainly, and he only won by a 9,000 vote margin - we made a difference."
Linda Keay of IPT News notes that these numbers were never independently verified. But, what is most interesting is that the shear demagoguery of Bray's statement again paints a clear picture of the modus operands of Islamists in the United States. They seek to collectivize Muslims in electoral politics and whenever possible in order to spread the impression of their tribal control of the Muslim community and exert pressure on media and government to appease the agenda of political Islam in America.
Empowering Islamist Movements hampers anti-Islamists
It is certainly within the rights of any minority community to unite, circle the wagons, and affect democracy - many certainly do. But, a faith-based voting bloc of Islamists, who are the embodiment of political Islam, is blurring the line between religion and state far too much. It compromises a central element in the defeat of radical Islamism and our counterterrorism efforts - the defeat of the ideology of political Islam (ends) and the fuel for radical Islamism (the means). Political Islam and its stated goals fly in the face of our nation's principles that led to the tax exemption status for religious organizations. Isn't the establishment of this so-called Muslim voting bloc one step closer to the behaviors of the theocrats that our ancestors in the Middle Eastern community left behind by coming to the U.S?
A so-called Muslim voting bloc reinforces the stereotype that we are tribal. When we vote for president or any political leader, I believe most Muslims assess a gamut of issues related to our collective American national and state interests, which I believe mirrors most of the rest of the American population. The Islamist agenda is more related to the goals of global political Islam than our own American interests. However, it would be a mistake to conflate Islamists with all Muslims. From economics to health care to immigration to national security and the general role of government, the Islamic faith cannot fit into a single point of view or the three self-centered issues outlined by Islamist groups in 2008. The Islamist doctrine will always try to do that while deceptively exploiting the faith and our faith community.
It is time for media, government, and American citizens to understand and expose the deception that the Islamist agenda is somehow with little critique related to a larger Muslim spiritual agenda. A healthy distrust of the Islamist agenda will actually go a long way toward empowering non-Islamist Muslims to rise against the collectivist behaviors of Islamists on our behalf.
Separating the agenda of political Islam from Islam will need a much deeper reform within our theology. We need to separate the ummah from national politics and Sharia from government. But this will take decades - if not generations, much like it did for the Enlightenment in the West. In the meantime, we should at least refrain from accepting the mixture of the agenda of Islamists with that of all American Muslims. And American Muslims who continue to try and circle their wagons and exploit tribalism,need ask themselves just one question - how relevant would their voting bloc be if American Christians voted en bloc in the upcoming 2008 elections?
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix Arizona. He is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, a physician in private practice, and a community activist. He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org
pong
Wrong. ALL of Islam is evil, and must be eradicated if civilization is to survive. People only need to read the koran and hadith to understand the ‘Religion of Pieces’. It is the nature of their cult religion of death. The only time they’re happy is when they’re killing, maiming, or destroying.
Sura (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution of Muslims is worse than slaughter of non-believers...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."
Sura (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"
Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"
Bukhari (52:177) - Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."
Tabari 7:97 The morning after the murder of Ashraf, the Prophet declared,"Kill any Jew who falls under your power."
Ibn Ishaq: 327 - “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
Dr. Jasser is muslim and he is not evil. He has been doing a great service by speaking out and condemning islamists and trying to reveal the islamist agenda in this country and worldwide.
In that paragraph you site, and throughout the article he is primarily addressing other muslims and telling them not to be taken in by the tactics of the wahhabi lobby which tries to portray itself as the voice of most muslims in the U.S. It is the voice of a very small minority. Unfortunately, the media, many politicians and others (you included) don’t or won’t make a distinction.
The next time you read a story about an Iraqi muslim saving the life of an American soldier - and many have - you can try to rationalize your “The only time they’re happy is when they’re killing, maiming, or destroying.” Good luck.
Europe is just finding out how severe , evil and all encompassing Sharia law is. England is suffering through it now and on RCP today, there is an article just on that subject. Islam is not, not part of our Western, Judeo-Christian heritage and would change this entire culture back, back to the 7th Century. Of course, there are Western influenced Muslim, thank God. Or else , like in 750AD, we would have them at the gates and would have to have a guy like Charles Martel to stop them!
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..”
True, but Islam is not a religion but rather an extreme political movement with the purpose of subjugating the entire world just as fascism was and marxism still is. Europe, by now, should start to have no doubt of its evil intent.
About 10% of Muslims are not evil and do not try to rip off the infidel
The remaining 90% are Jihadists or those who support them or like what they do.
Great yag line. Must remember that one.
“About 10% of Muslims are not evil and do not try to rip off the infidel.The remaining 90% are Jihadists or those who support them or like what they do.”
Wow, there’s a factual, unbiased, non-bigotted statistic. Thank you - Not - for your input.
Please help me understand this command:
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. 9:29 (Jizya is the money that non-Muslims must pay to the Muslim overlords in a pure Islamic state.)
If you follow the words of your prophet, when you meet me, a Christian, you give me three choices:
1. Convert to Islam
2. Be killed
3. Submit and pay the jizya
Where am I wrong? Peaceful co-existence does not seem to be the will of Allah.
I used to believe the God of the Jew, the Christian and the Muslim was the God of Abraham. Until I started learning about the cult of death called Islam.
What does that have to do with the way the vast majority of Muslims live their lives?
Thanks for your input and comment. I will change this to: “The only time they are truly following the command of Allah is when they are killing in his name, forcing conversions to Islam, or subjugating and taxing non-believers."
Is that better?
All muslims are not-evil. Islam is evil.
If they choose to ignore the commands of the prophet and Allah, nothing.
It is when they choose to follow the commands of Islam that creates the problem for civilization. See my post 14.
There are probably a lot of people who grew up under Islam who are good and decent people.
However, their goodness and decency are in spite of Islam, not because of it. Similarly, there are people who grew up under Christianity who occupy their days with rape, robbery and murder
Islam, at it's core, is inherently evil. That there are good Muslims does not redeem the ideology of Islam, any more than the existence of bad Christians condemns Christianity
“However, their goodness and decency are in spite of Islam, not because of it.”
Really? I think Dr. Jasser and the other “good and decent people” would disagree with that.
So, are you agreeing with this ridiculous statement? “The only time they’re happy is when they’re killing, maiming, or destroying. “
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