Posted on 09/01/2006 6:04:17 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) ROSEMONT, Ill -- The newly elected head of the largest Muslim group in North America called President Bush's recasting of the war on terror as a "war against Islamic fascism" inaccurate and not helpful to people of her faith.
Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, said Friday that labeling terrorism as "Islamic" only adds to a misunderstanding of the religion.
Mattson acknowledged that terrorist groups "do misuse and use Islamic concepts and terms to justify their violence."
"But I think that when we then bestow that term upon them we only make the situation worse and somehow give validity to their claims which we need to deny and reject," she said at the opening of the group's 43rd annual convention.
Bush and other Republicans have been using the wording in recent speeches. White House aides and outside Republican strategists have said the new term is an attempt to more clearly identify the ideology that motivates many organized terrorist groups.
"I'm convinced that it is not only inaccurate, but unhelpful," she said. "If our major concern is security, security of this country, this is a term that has very bad resonance in the Muslim majority world and makes us feel uncomfortable here."
Mattson said her group would argue to eliminate the use of the phrase. U.S. officials, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, are attending the meeting.
"We're hoping that there can be some adjustment to this language and we're trying to voice that opinion to those who have been using this, circulating this term," she said.
England did not address the issue during a Friday afternoon panel, but said American Muslims will play an important role as the Pentagon improves its training of the military on Islamic culture.
"They understand their culture, obviously, much better than we do," England said. "We have not done a very good job in the past and we need to do better."
He also called on Muslim Americans to spread to the world the word about freedom, citing the success of Muslim businesspeople and professionals in the United States.
The Islamic Society drew its own fire for inviting former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who is expected to address the convention Saturday.
"Khatami ... behaved as an enemy of America and our most cherished values," said Jay Tcath, vice president of the Chicago Jewish Federation in a statement. "It is disturbing that any American organization would honor him by providing such an important platform."
Tcath said American Jews remember "the egregious 1999 imprisonment and circus trial of 13 Iranian Jews on trumped-up charges of espionage for Israel," which happened under Khatami's presidency.
Mattson said the group hopes to show Khatami "how the American Muslim community has dealt with issues of religious freedom and tolerance and perhaps he can carry some of that message back."
Khatami, whose receipt of a visa was announced this week by the State Department, also plans to attend a U.N. conference in New York and to speak on religion's role in promoting peace at the Washington National Cathedral during his trip to the United States.
The Islamic Society's four-day meeting is expected to draw more than 30,000 Muslims from Canada and around the United States for mostly nonpolitical sessions on subjects including retirement planning, Internet marketing, home schooling and dating.
I would believe her if she said that the terrorists interpret the Koran incorrectly.
"I'm convinced that it is not only inaccurate, but unhelpful," she said. "If our major concern is security, security of this country, this is a term that has very bad resonance in the Muslim majority world and makes us feel uncomfortable here."
if the mooslims would quit killin people, perhaps that would change..in lieu of that, maybe she'd like to go where she is comfortable, say a taliban controlled area of afghanistan..
BUMP
beat me to it, Thanks for posting. ;-)
Vendors display Islamic educational products in the bazaar at the 43rd annual ISNA convention encourages participants to register to vote Friday, Sept, 1, 2006 in Rosemont, Ill. The four-day convention will focus on a range of issues facing American Muslims and their evolving role and identity in the American society.(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
Oh, but it's very helpful. It's an acurate description of what we're fighting. If they don't like us using the term, then perhaps they need to get their fellow Muslims under control. It is what it is.
Not all Muslims are terrorist, but most terrorists are Muslim.
Nonsense. These terrorists call themselves Islamic fundamentalists.
"Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America..."
Ignorant, pigpoop-drinking, verminous garbage muslim-islamist-arab apologist, IMO. Bite me, iSoNA, CAiR filthy!
Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, said Friday that labeling terrorism as "Islamic" only adds to a misunderstanding of the religion.
The misunderstandings arise from the use of the word "fascism."
We're just calling them what they're calling themselves.
Yeah, right.....
"If our major concern is security, security of this country, this is a term that has very bad resonance in the Muslim majority world and makes us feel uncomfortable here."
Not half as uncomfortable as you are going to feel after
the next Islamofascist attack on us, Ingrid.
Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America.
Isn't that some kind of Islamic oxymoron, a "woman" president?
Help me out here, Ingrid: What kind of terrorism is it?
Just like the rest of you Muslims, Ingrid, you are a LIAR.
Why is there a Islamic Society of North America?
Why are these "people" not rounded up and shipped out to their "holy" land?
Yup,there's a great deal of nuance contained in the teachings of I Slam.
Will I get banned for saying my first thought was "locked and loaded"?
Amin Al Husseini seen inspecting his Hanzar Division made up exclusively of Muslims, mostly from the Crotia/Bosnia/Serbia region. They actively lead the genocide against Serbs, Serbian Jews and Gypsies.
Amin Al Husseini meets with Adolf Hitler in November 1942, weeks before the decision to implement the Final Solution which sent Europe's Jews to the gas chamber. The Third Reich provided Amin Al Husseini with a salary and appointed him Head of the Hanzar SS Division. The Hanzar Division was made of Nazi Muslims and implemented the genocide of 250,000 Serbs, Gypsies and Jews during WWII.
Amin Al Husseini shown here on a Nazi poster recruiting fellow Muslims to join Hitler in the fight against the West and the Jews. His disciples today include Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the leaders of Hamas, Al Qeida and Islamic Jihad.
Amin Al Husseini, future President of the World Islamic Congress (1961) and founding father of the Arab League (1944) inspects his Muslim Nazi troops, the Hanzar Division. Amin Al Husseini making the traditional nazi salute.
Yasser Arafat became a disciple of Amin Al Husseini since the age of 17. Here: recent picture of Palestinian soldiers under the leadership of Arafat making the traditional Nazi salute.
WWII . Amin Al Husseini spent most of the war in Berlin. He was on Hitler's payroll as he lead the Hanzar Division of Muslim SS and played a lead-role in determining the fate of Europe's Jewish community.. From Berlin, Amin Al Husseini helped organize the transfer of Nazi officers into the Middle East
Amin Al Husseini inspecting his Nazi troops, the Hanzar. Here, he is showing a young Muslim recruit how to use his rifle. Amin Al Husseini himself had been an officer in the defeated Ottoman Islamic Empire of World War I.<
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.