Hamas vs Fatah

RABAT, Morocco - Fifty women have graduated as Muslim preachers, part of a concerted effort by authorities in Morocco to promote moderate Islam in a country grappling with extremism.
Another 150 men graduated Wednesday as imams, or prayer leaders. The 50 female religious guides, or morchidat, won't lead prayers in mosques, which is reserved for men, but will be sent around the country to teach women — and, occasionally, men — about Islam.
While Moroccan officials said the appointment of female state preachers was a rare experiment in the Muslim world, others said it was unprecedented in Morocco and the majority of other Arab countries.
"Your duty … is to prevent intrusion by foreign agents trying to violate our values and traditions," Ahmed Taoufiq, minister of Islamic Affairs, told the graduates Wednesday.
"You must be committed to the faith and politics of the state which the people have chosen. This choice includes the policies of the Amir al Moumenin (Commander of the Faithful) who runs deep in our veins," said Taoufiq, referring to the religious title of King Mohammed VI.
The training of the preachers is part of a campaign launched by the young king, a descendant of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, to strengthen state-controlled mosques while undermining radical clerics who preach Islamic extremism. He has vowed that no foreign religious doctrine would be tolerated in the North African kingdom, which is a close ally of the United States and a partner in its war against terrorism.

 

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Hatewatch Briefing 2005-09-23
by Hatewatch at September 23, 2005 3:05 AM

Welcome! This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places the mainstream media sometimes seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions. Our goal is to bring you some of the top jihadi rants, idiotarian seething, and old-school Jew-hatred from around the world, leaving you more informed, more aware, and pretty disgusted every month. This Winds of Change.NET HateWatch briefing is brought to you by Omri Ceren of Mere Rhetoric. Past briefings and posts on related topics can be found here.

HIGHLIGHTED TOPICS

* Religious Hate: British Islamic experts: best way to dampen terrorism is to forget about Holocaust; Palestinian extremists also hate Christians; Violent anti-Semitism in the Ukraine; 100 percent of Jordanians hate Jews; British universities overrun with extremism; European anti-Semitism on the rise; Palestinians rampage, destroy synagogues after Israeli disengagement; Islamist anti-Semitism in the United States

* Idiotarian Seethings: Cindy Sheehan: "Occupied New Orleans"; Black Panthers leader blames 9/11, Katrina on Jews, whites; Cat Stevens blames 9/11 on Americans; AP: Bush equal LBJ, Iraq equal Vietnam; Lt. General Honore embarrasses over-eager reporter; Ugly Left justifies vulgarity - poorly

* Race and Culture: Fatwa against woman tennis player for showing too much leg; Anti-homosexual paranoia in Kumasi; Israeli Katrina aid just too Jewish for State Department; German SDP posters exploit photos of dead American soldiers; French FM has zero knowledge of the Holocaust

* A Hopeful Note: Muslim press condemns Gaza synagogue burnings; Hope for more expanded Israeli-Muslim ties; Stockholm Imam advocates expelling extremists

Religious Hate:

* What's the best way to address the home-grown Islamism that inspired the 7/7 bombers? According to the moderate Muslim leaders that Tony Blair appointed to study the issue, it's to ban Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day:

Advisers appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims... The draft proposals have been prepared by committees appointed by Blair to tackle extremism.

Why mourning the British memorial day upset Muslims is beyond us: as near as we can tell, the memorials focus mostly on European countries, not on the rather extensive Arab complicity in the Holocaust. Unsurprisingly, this kind of accepted, quotidian anti-Semitism is developing into a palpable feeling of siege among British Jews.

* Christians in Israel are increasingly the targets of Islamic sectarian violence.

* A rabbi and his son have been severely beaten in Ukraine. Despite this incident, and the one last month where a Jewish student was beaten into a coma by skinheads, and the many acts of anti-Semitic vandalism that have taken place over the last two years - despite all of this, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko insists that anti-Semitism is not a problem in Ukraine.

* Every first year college student knows that, in statistics, there's no such thing as probability zero and there's no such thing as probability one. So when the Pew Research Center concludes that 100 percent of Jordanians view Jews unfavorably, the reader is left to infer for him or herself just how overwhelmingly conclusive their numbers must have been. Not 99 percent. 100 percent.

* Over thirty British institutions of higher learning have been infiltrated by Islamist and other extremist organizations

[There are] more than 30 institutions - including some of the most high-profile universities in the country - where "extremist and/or terror groups" have been detected... The study states that the Islamist groups Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun, which are subject to a "no-platform policy" by the National Union of Students, are active on many campuses and often operate under different names. The report catalogues the activities of far-right organizations and animal rights extremists.

Maybe they can solve that by banning Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day. In other news, the National Union of Students - the bastion of at least some of this extremism - has been found by British courts to be not anti-Semitic. So that's a relief.

* Israeli Preside Moshe Katsav is attempting to draw global attention to the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

* After virtually every rabbinical authority forbid Jewish soldiers from bulldozing the synagogues left in evacuated Gaza settlements, the Israeli cabinet obviously decided to leave the buildings intact. As soon as the IDF finally left, however, Palestinians - in an orgy of looting and arson - rushed in to desecrate and destroy the buildings.
MSM apologias for this outrage ranged from the paternalistic ("what else did you expect from the Palestinians? They can't help themselves": here and here and here and here and here) to the vaguely celebratory ("the synagogues were symbols of the illegal and humiliating occupation" - here and here). Specific criticisms of the former sentiment be found here and here, while criticisms of the latter are here and here.

* Islamic cultural and religious institutions in the United States are becoming fertile ground for vicious anti-Semitism:

Militant Islam is rapidly spreading its tentacles across America. One of the few Islamic moderates in this country, Muhammad Hisham Kabbani of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, estimated that "extremists" have taken over 80% of the mosques in the US. These extremists are working single-mindedly to turn America into an Islamic state, with the Koran as its foundation... The campaign is not limited to mosques. It also includes Islamic community centers, newspapers, schools, youth groups, political organizations, professional associations and business activities - all involved in recruiting, training, supporting and coordinating its members.

Idiotarian Seethings:

* Cindy Sheehan continues to be the moonbat gift that keeps on giving:

George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power.

We have nothing to add, except to say that this idiotic meme is now flowing through the various streams and rivers of the anti-war Left. Also, that it's a difficult stance to reconcile with the Left's other favorite Katrina meme: that Bush should have sent more troops into New Orleans sooner. Come to think of it, this Leftist "send no troops in - no wait, send more troops in" schizophrenia seems vaguely familiar.

* Blogger the Political Teen has tape on Black Panther Minister Nashim Nzinga's unhinged diatribe. The Minister seems to believe, inter alia, that the Jews knew about 9/11 beforehand, that there is some type of mother ship guarding earth, and that white people intentionally blew up the levee in New Orleans to kill blacks. The exact reason why said mother ship would allow white people to blow up the levees remains, at the time of publication, unclear.

* According to Cat Stevens, Al Qaeda's murderous attack on Britain had nothing to do with religious fanaticism, cultural resentment, or the desire to establish a global caliphate. Instead, the pitiable bombers were doing what they could to react to British foreign policy in the Middle East.

* The Associated Press is expanding their horizons - whereas before they seemed content with merely quoting Cindy Sheehan's dumb Iraq-Vietnam analogies, they've now begun doing their own rhetorical criticisms of Bush's speeches.

* If you haven't yet heard about "don't get stuck on stupid", we'd like to thank you for making the Winds of Change.NET HateWatch the only thing you read on the Internet.

* There's an extended and nuanced article to be written about political deliberation in the context new media technologies, wherein the decorum of major right-wing blogs would be contrasted with the thuggish machismo that marks sites like Atrios and Kos. That article would look nothing like this post, which is a pathetic attempt to justify the author's ill-bred vulgarity.

Race and Culture:

* Sania Mirza, like all successful female tennis players, wears shorts or skirts on the court. This, according to Muslim religious leaders, simply will not do:

India's leading female tennis player has been subjected to a fatwa by a Muslim cleric for wearing short skirts and revealing tops on the international tennis circuit. Sania Mirza, 18... became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam at the US Open last week. "The dress she wears on the tennis courts... leaves nothing to the imagination," Haseeb-ul-hasan Siddiqui told The Hindustan Times.

We've only recently been given the honor of producing HateWatch; do you think it's too soon to crack the joke that Mr. Siddiqui clearly lacks imagination? Yes? OK - forget we said anything. Focus instead on the somewhat creepy fixation that Muslim clerics have with the female body. This isn't about modesty, and it's only partly about controlling every last part of every woman. No one should underestimate the extent to which this is just a dirty old man getting to talk about what he's imagining that 18 year old girl doing, and then blaming his prurient thoughts on her short skirt. Psychoanalysis gets some things right and some things wrong, but one would be a fool not to recognize what's going on when someone tries this hard to avoid the sight of a woman's skin.

* The not at all failed state of Ghana is very concerned about all the gay people in their country. But with their help, you too can identify and avoid homosexuals:

The clubs are mostly patronized by high society men and women who drive expensive cars. They are also very fashionable in their appearance. One significant thing about them is that most of homosexuals bleach their skin and wear earrings in one or in both ears. Lesbians dress scantly and in a very seductive manner. The homosexuals are more often recruited through social functions and lured with money and gifts by the affluent. With the lesbians, the Spectator learnt that they are young innocent girls who are initially employed by rich shop owners as shop assistants in the commercial and fashionable areas of the metropolis.

Hide your children folks - young boys and girls are being enticed into a life of lecherous promiscuity by high society, expensive car-driving shop owners. If you're not careful, next thing you know your kids will be wearing earrings and dressing scantly. And then what will you do?

* The US State Department refused to accept aid from Israel in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They were apparently concerned that accepting aid immediately - while people were still dying - would prevent Muslim countries from giving aid later - after most of those people had already died.
* Davids Medienkritik is right: using photos of dead American soldiers to win votes is truly sick:

We have learned that one of Gerhard Schroeder's senior ministers and a top SPD man in eastern Germany, Rolf Schwanitz, is using the following poster in an attempt to win votes... How could anyone exploit the images of fallen American soldiers in flag-draped coffins for political gain. Haven't those soldiers earned the right not to be exploited by some European politician? We honestly didn't think the SPD would resort to this.The photo shows a row of coffins draped with American flags, and the caption reads "She (Merkel) Would Have Sent Soldiers". If Schroeder has not been as openly anti-American in this election as he was in the last one, his party seems to have made up for his lack of breadth with depth. Who knew they could sink that low?

* If you've ever wondered why the French political establishment can't seem to wrap their minds around the necessity for a secure Jewish state, we suggest that you consider the possibility that they don't know anything about history:

[D]uring the visit of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to the new Holocaust museum in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem on September 8, he asked... whether British Jews were not also murdered... "But Monsieur le minister," [his hosts said] "England was never conquered by the Nazis during World War II." The minister apparently was not content with this answer... and persisted, asking: "Yes, but were there no Jews who were deported from England?"

A Hopeful Note:

* The Palestinian synagogue-burning rampage was too much even for some Muslims.

* Last post, we posted on the talks that Pakistan has opened talks with Israel. This week, other Islamic countries expressed their interested in following suit. Meanwhile, Daniel Pipes writes on the historic, incredible, earth-shattering significance of the Israeli-Pakistani relations thaw.

* The Imam of Stockholm's largest mosque, reacting to the 7/7 bombings and threats to his own life, has issued a call for national unity in Sweden. He called on the government to remove the threat posed by Islamists, and complimented the British government for expelling the "preachers of hatred" from their own country.

 

This is stunning. I am sure the 1.2 billion Muslims of the world will be startled to find out that they have all converted to Wahhabism or are committed members of al-Qaeda. pure nonsense. Islam remains a big tent with many competing worldviews and the internal debate for the soul of Islam will no doubt continue well into the future. This debate is reflected in a robust fashion within the Arab world, which Amis and most other secularist pundits remain deaf to for some reason.
This past summer I led a group of Americans to Morocco to learn more about Islam and to meet with Muslims. While there I watched the Arab and international media available in nearly every Morooccan home (satellite dishes appear on even the most humble shanty town homes). I watched a debate held in Doha, Qatar between Muslim liberals and fundamentalists on the role of women in society. In these debates, which are beamed throughout the Arab and Muslim world, the fundamentalists always appear as backward looking and inarticulate, and the Muslim liberals passionately advocate for serious reforms based on a more enlightened and liberal interpretation of the Koran and Islamic traditions. Liberal Muslim reformers have not won the day but neither have the fundamentalists. Fundamentalist Islam is not all that is going on in the Muslim world, and a strong case can be made that it is the radical fundamentalists who are in the minority position among Muslims.

 

As Morocco's director of Islamic Affairs, Dr. Ahmad Abaddi and those working with him have the following accomplishments under their belt:

* They embarked upon a campaign of interviews, speeches, and sermons that condemn al Qaeda’s teachings and violence. This accelerated after 9/11 and a series of suicide bombings that ripped through Morocco’s Muslim- and Jewish-owned restaurants, as well as a bombing at a Jewish community center on May 16, 2003, that left some 45 dead and more than 100 wounded.
* They helped mobilize more than one million Moroccans to take to the streets of Casablanca in May 2003 to denounce radical Islamic terrorism—a march in which 1,000 Moroccan Jews openly participated and were warmly embraced by the Muslim community.
* They launched a theological training program for Imams to teach them how to promote moderation within Islam, to teach them more about Western history and the importance of Christianity and Judaism to Western social and political development, and to help them identify and oppose extremist forces and trends within Islam. Participants take 32 hours of instruction per week for a full year. The first class of 210 just graduated, and included 55 women.
* They helped organize the “World Congress of Rabbis and Imams for Peace” in Brussels (January 2005) and Seville (March 2006) where some 150 Muslim and Jewish leaders “sit beard to beard” to explore common ground, denounce extremists, and “write declarations of peace.”
* They launched an initiative to build a “bridge of friendship” to evangelical Christians in the U.S., including on-going dialogues with Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals, Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council, and Josh McDowell of Campus Crusade for Christ, among others. Abaddi and his colleagues have also invited pastors and evangelical business leaders to Morocco for conferences and high-level inter-faith talks, and have even helped organize a series of concerts in Marrakesh where Christian and Muslim rock bands perform together for thousands of Moroccan young people.
* They published a book about the importance of encouraging religious freedom within Islam and even suggested that “Muslims have the right to change their religion” if they so desire.
* Abaddi also confirmed rumors swirling about in the Arab press that his government is quietly laying the groundwork with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to hold a new round of high-level peace talks in the Kingdom in the near future. He noted that King Hassan II—the late-father of the current monarch—opened secret talks with the Israelis as far back as the early 1970s and that Morocco was the first Arab government after Egypt to welcome an Israeli Prime Minister for a public visit (Shimon Peres in July 1986).
​

 

Open Letter to President Bush re: Democracy Promotion
Dear Mr. President:
As Arab and Muslim intellectuals and activists concerned about the promotion of democracy in our region, we urge you to reaffirm-in words and actions- America 's commitment to sustained democratic reform in the Arab world. It is our belief that the main problem with U.S. policies in the Middle East (in particular in Iraq , Palestine , and elsewhere) is precisely their failure to live up to America 's democratic ideals of liberty and justice for all. We have been heartened by the strong commitment to liberty you had expressed in your November 2003 speech at the National Endowment for Democracy and then your second inaugural address, when you said that "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
Despite some initial skepticism, those statements nurtured hope in our region. We realize that democracy is not easily attained and must ultimately come from within. But it can receive encouragement and support, both of which it badly needs today in Arab countries. The minimum support the people of the region yearn for is precisely what you have undertaken in your NED speech: to break with 60 years of US support for non-democratic regimes in the region, and to make that known to the world in unequivocal terms. This would be more consistent with the principles of the United States, which has, since its birth, been intimately connected with the ideals of democratic governance enshrined in its founding documents-ideals that speak to all generations and peoples everywhere.
We know that some in the United States , worried by recent Islamist gains among voters in Palestine and Egypt , are having doubts about the wisdom of pushing for freedom and democracy in the Middle East . These worries are exploited by despots in the region to perpetuate the untenable status quo. However, there is no way to advance liberty without inclusion of all elements that are willing to abide by democratic rules, and reject violence. Democratic participation is the only way to combat extremism and pressure all groups, including Islamists, to moderate their stance in order to maximize their share of the vote. The US should continue to press for an end to regime repression of democratically spirited liberal and Islamist groups, and to emphatically distance itself from such repression and condemn it in the strongest terms whenever and wherever it occurs. We are confident that if Arab citizens are able to have their choice, they will choose democracy, freedom, peace and progress.
A return to the pre-9/11 status quo is not the answer. It will only embolden ruling autocrats, hurt Arab reformers, and damage America 's credibility. In the end, it will probably strengthen the very forces that America fears. The shore of reform is the only one on which any lights appear even though the journey demands courage, patience, and perseverance.
erhaps emboldened by the impression that America is wavering in its support for democracy, some autocrats have recently intensified repression. This makes the need for sustained U.S. and international support and pressure more urgent than ever. The region needs to hear again that the course of freedom and democracy is the only course which America , guided by both interest and principle, will support.
To mention but one case where U.S. influence may do much good, Egypt has lately seen a regime crackdown on opposition activists. In February, the government postponed municipal elections and renewed the emergency law. The regime has not even spared Egypt ' s venerable judiciary which has steadfastly proclaimed its independence in recent months. And liberal opposition politician Ayman Nour, who was allowed to run in last year's presidential election and won 7.6% of the popular vote, second behind President Mubarak, was arrested and sentenced in a murky process to five years in jail. The health of Mr. Nour, a dear friend and colleague of many of us, continues to deteriorate. We pray that you will take his case to heart and let the Egyptian regime hear your concerns. Hundreds of other activists (including doctors, university professors, journalists and civil society activists) whose only crime was to express their desire for freedom, continue to languish in jail and suffer torture and police brutality. This brutality often included sexual molestation and public humiliation of women activists and journalists by pro-government thugs.
As you have argued, the war against terror and extremism can only be won by helping Middle Eastern countries reform their closed political systems. As societies become more open, citizens can voice their grievances through legitimate, democratic means, making them less likely to resort to violence. You are right to believe that democracy and pluralism point the way to peace and moderation.
We hope that you will consider our words, recall how much is at stake in the Arab world, and ponder how costly silence and mixed signals can be when freedom is under assault. We entreat you to do everything you can to ensure that a small number of authoritarian rulers will not control the future of more than 300 million Arabs, more than half of whom are not yet 20 years old. Freedom and democracy are the only way to build a world where violence is replaced by peaceful public debate and political participation, and despair is substituted by hope, tolerance and dignity.
Sincerely,
Name, Organization, Country
1. Radwan Masmoudi, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, USA
2. Aly Abuzakuk, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, USA
3. Sherif Mansour, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy,
USA/Egypt
4. Khalid Cherkaoui Semmouni, President of Center Moroccan of Human
Rights, Morocco
5. Qamar-Ul Huda, United States Institute of Peace, USA
6. Anwar N. Haddam , Liberty & Social Justice Movement , Algeria
7. Randa Slim, International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD),
USA
8. Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University
of Westminster , UK
9. Ibrahim M. Hussein, Alliance of Egyptian Americans, USA
10. Najah Kadhim, International Forum for Islamic Dialogue , UK
11. Abdelazim Mahmoud Hanafi, Kenana Center for Research and Studies ,
Egypt
12. Najib Ghadbian, University of Arkansas, US / Syria
13. Anna Mahjar Barducci, Middle East Media Research Institute ,
Italy-Morocco
14. Malath Arar , GE Infra, Energy , USA
15. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, International Quranic Center , USA / Egypt
16. Ahmed Shabaan, ICDS , Egypt
17. Abbas H.Rahi, Iraqi Organization for Rehabilitating Society and
Environment, Iraq
18. Gameela Ismail, El Ghad Party , Egypt
19. Amir Salem, Justice and Freedom Party , Egypt
20. Mohamad Ibrahim, Noor Association for Social Services, Egypt
21. Emad Farid, El Ghad Party , Egypt
22. Haytham Mouzahem, Independent Researcher and Journalist, Egypt
23. Ibrahim Dadi, Islamic Thinker, Algeria
24. Othman Mohamed Ali, Pharmacist and Islamic Researcher, Canada/Egypt
25. Adel Mohamed, Center for the Study of Islam , Egypt
26. Hamdi Shehab, Alwasiqa Center for Citizenship and H R, Egypt
27. Ahmed Farghali, Alwasiqa Center for Citizenship and H R, Egypt
28. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, Egypt
29. Mohamed Allawzi, Activist , France
30. Hamdi Abdelaziz, Sawasia Center for Human Rights, Egypt
31. Ghassan Ali Othman, Islamic Researcher, Sudan
32. Mohieb Alarnaoti, Activist, Egypt
33. Safei-Eldin A. Hamed, Alliance of Egyptian Americans AEA, USA/Egypt
34. Marwa Abdelkader Helmi, Activist , Egypt
35. Mohamed Fawzi, Human Association for Development Studies, Egypt
36. Hazim Alluhaibi, President of the Iraqi National University, Iraq
37. Naiem A. Sherbiny, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, USA
38. Saeed Abdel Hafez Darwish, Forum for Development and Human Rights
Dialogue, Egypt
39. Dhuha Rouhi, President of Association of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), Iraq
40. Ashur Shamis, Libya Human and Political Development Forum, Libya
41- Amr Hamzawy, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA/Egypt
42- Nadia Lachiri, Forum Des Femmes Marrocaines- MEKNES-, Morocco
43- Chedley Aouriri, Tunisian Community Center, USA
44- Hesham Abdelsalam Alsadr, Secretary-General of the Iraqi Civil Group,
Iraq
45- M.Nagui ElGhatrifi, President of ElGhad Party, Egypt
46- Randa Al Zoghbi, Program Director for Center for International Private
Enterprise (CIPE), Egypt
47- Cankurd MD, Member of KDP-S and Kurdish PEN Club, Germany
48- Dr Mohamed Gamal Heshmat, University Prof & former PM, Egypt
49- Jamal E. Ryane, Global Migration and Gender Network Consultant,
Netherlands
50- Omar M. Najib, Attorney At Law, USA
51- Ali Al-Ahmed, the Institute of Gulf Affairs, USA
52- Louay Safi, Syrian American Congress, USA
53- Shifa Garba, Zaymar Services, Nigeria
54- Faeza AlEbadi, The New Iraqi Women Association, Iraq
55. Hassan AlIbrahimi, Iraqi Human Rights Watch Association, Iraq
56. Omar Hisham Altalib, Minaret of Freedom Institute, USA
57. Bachir Edkhil, President of ALTER FORUM, Morocco
58. Amer AlAmir, Architict, Painter, & Writer, Canada/Iraq
59. Mohammad Harbi, Journalist, Egypt
60. Abdellatif Saied, Activist, Egypt
61. Amir Aldargi, Thinker, Norway/Iraq
62. Zaienab Alsellami, Women and the Future Association, Iraq
63. Shaza Nagi, Women for Peace, Iraq
64. Abeer Azzawi, Women for Peace, Iraq
65. Kawther Rahim, Human Rights and Civil Society organization, Wasit
Province, Iraq
66. Hafez Ben Othman, Activist, Tunisia
67. Omar S'habou, Président of the Maghrebian Alliance for Democracy, France
68. Sabry Fawzy Gohara, Surgeon and professor of surgery, USA
69. Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, Professor, Cairo University, Egypt
70. Abdulmajid Biuk, Transparency Libya, USA/Libya
71. Mohamed Nabieh, Center for Developing Democratic Dialogue, Egypt
72. Said Galal, Activist, Egypt/Canda
73. Wagih Khair Ikladious, Rewak Ibn Khaldun Association, Egypt
74. Safia Fahassi, President of the Algerian Coordination of Families of
Missing eople, Algeria
75. Ibrahim AlHadari, Social and Environmental development Association,
Egypt
76. Mohamed Hafiz Alhafiz, President of the Iraqi/Japanese Friendship
Organization, Iraq
77. Sameer Jarrah, Arab World Center for Democratic Development, Jordan
78. Nadi Abou Zaher, Committee for International Complains (CIC), Palestine
79. Saleh Hadi, Association for Human Rights in Wasit, Iraq
80. Ibrahim Hussien, Egyptians Without Borders, USA/Egypt
81. Sayed Salem, Islamic Researcher, Palestine
82. Nuha Al Darwish, Model Iraqi Society Organization, Iraq
83. Mohamed Albadri, Egyptian Liberal Party, Egypt
84. Nesma Ahmed Ibrahim, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, Egypt
85. Mamdouh Nakhla, Alkalema Center for Human Rights, Egypt
86. Hatem Abdelhadi, Egyptian Writers Union, Egypt
87. Mohamed Youssef Bakeir, Economical Consultant, Egypt
88. Amal Mohey Eddin, Alwasat Islamic Party, Jordan
89. Alidrissi Omari Abdelmajid, Human Rights Activist, Singapore
90. Refaat Ismail, Independent Activist, Egypt.
91. Touria Khannous, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University , Morocco
92. Sandra E. Parson, Independent Activist, USA
93. Wasef Tubishat, General Director, Democracy Watch , Jordan
94. Marawn Alfaouri, President of Alwasateya Forum , Jordan
95. Mohsen Ashri, Activist, Egypt
96. Mahmoudi Abdelkader, Egyptian Liberal Party , Egypt
97. Sami Bawalsa, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, USA/Jordan
98. Stuart Laughton, Musician, Canada
99. Tamer El-Tonsy, Activist, UK
100. Nor Ali, Businessman , Turkey
101. Khaled Chouket, Director of Centre Support Democracy in the Arab World
, Netherlands
102. Elhamy Elmeligi, Journalist and Activist, Egypt
103. Maytham Gaber Matar, High Commission for Civil Society

 

Muslim Intellectual Calls for 'Protestant Islam'

From MEMRI:
Dr. Bassam Tahhan, a Syrian-born French professor of Arabic literature, teaches at the prestigious Henri IV secondary school in Paris and is an expert on the Koran. In his numerous lectures and interviews, he advocates "Protestant Islam," which he defines as Islam that allows freedom of thought and permits questioning the Sunna, abrogating hadiths not grounded in the Koran, and reinterpreting the Koran in light of modern values.

 

http://www.cmm.or.id/index-eng.php

center for moderate muslim indonesia

 

ZAWAHIRI: Congratulations To The Ummah Of Tawheed On Eid
Jan 01, 2007
Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri | As-Sahab Media

Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri, second-in-command in al-Qaeda’s network released a statement Sunday congratulating the Muslims Ummah on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, its patience and endurance while calling on the Islamic nation to unite. Here is the complete transcript, uncut and uncensored in its entirety.

We remind our viewers that the opinions and points of view expressed in this article are those of the author and shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of JUS, the publisher, editor, writers, contributors or staff. In addition, JUS assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of third party content.

TO THE UMMAH OF TAWHID ON THE BLESSED OCCASION OF EID

In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious The Most Merciful

Al praise is due to Allah, and may peace and prayers be on the Messenger of Allah and on his family, companions and allies.

Muslim brothers everywhere: peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings .

I would like to congratulate you twice: the first congratulation is on the occasion of blessed Eid al-Adha, and I ask Allah to accept your sacrifices and righteous deeds. And I ask Him to accept the pilgrims' Hajj, Sa'y, Tawaaf, and other acts of devotion.the Hajj, of which America has deprived the Mujahideen and noble ones confronting its brutal Zionist Crusade.

And the second congratulation is on the defeat of the Americans and their Crusader allies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I ask Allah that we see the same thing soon in Palestine, Allah willing.that defeat which the Americans, British and their allies only admited to after the blows rained down on their heads one after the other, after they had plugged their ears to the voice of reason and morality.

That defeat, Muslim brethren, was not achieved by parliamentary elections, nor by the fatwas of the scholars of beggary, nor by the deals struck by the religion-traders in Kabul and Baghdad. Rather, it was achieved with blood, martyrdom-seeking, the torture of the captives and the efforts of the Emigrants and Helpers.

Had the Mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistan taken the path of the religion-trading traitors or the path of elections on the basis of secular constitutions, Crusader forces under the command of America would today be building up in the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and Egypt to divide them and tear them to pieces. But what made their plot blow up in their faces is the rushing of the people of Iman and Jihad to sacrifice themselves in the path of Allah and their determination not to differentiate between the enemy invader and his local agents or say, "This is native blood, whereas that is foreign blood." Rather, they acted according to the statement of the Truth, Most High and Glorified:

"And he amongst you that takes them as allies is one of them. Verily, Allah does not guide a wrongdoing people."(5:51)

This is the most important lesson learned, so let us remember it always and hold fast to it.

I also congratulate the Muslims in Palestine on the blessed Eid al-Adha which approaches them as their blood is oozing from the stabs of the Jews in their chests and the stabs of the Palestine-selling secularist traitors in their backs.the Palestine-selling secularist traitors, slaves of international law and worshipers of the dollar, those who have turned their backs on the Shari'ah and declared in their charters that their goal is the establishment of a secular state in one of the most holy places in Islam.those who have abandoned most of Palestine, recognized Israel and signed the accords of surrender with it, and let loose their security services against the Mujahideen to arrest and torment them and lead Israel to them.

These traitors cannot possibly be brothers of the Muslims, for in fact, they are their enemies and the enemies of their religion, and the Muslims must reject and disown them. The Truth, Exalted is He, says:

"O you who believe! Take not for allies your fathers and your brothers if they prefer infidelity to faith; and whoever of you take them as allies, they are the wrongdoers." (9:23)

My Mujahid brothers in Palestine, the Palestine-selling secularist traitors cannot possibly be your brothers, so neither confer on them legitimacy, nor appease them in their secular religion, nor participate with them in their Shari'ah-rejecting assemblies, nor sign with them the documents which throw away Palestine. You must actualize the doctrine of loyalty and disloyalty, without which the religion cannot stand. The Truth, Exalted is He, says

"You shall not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they be their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their clan. For such He has written faith in their hearts and strengthened them with a spirit from Himself. And He will admit them to Gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for eternity. Allah will be well pleased with them, and they with Him. They are the party of Allah. Truly, it is the party of Allah that will achieve success." (58:22)

And He, the most Honorable of speaker, says:

"There is for you an excellent example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, 'We are innocent of you and of what you worship beside Allah; we have rejected you, and there has begun between us and you enmity and hatred forever, unless you believe in Allah Alone.'" (60:4)

How is it possible for Mahmoud Abbas to be a brother of ours or for Muhammad Dahlan to be a brother of ours, when they have grown fat on the bribes of the Jews and gifts of the Americans?

My Muslim brethren in Palestine, always keep in mind that you are Mujahideen in Allah's path. The Truth, Exalted is He, says:

"He is the one who sent His Messenger with Guidance and the religion of truth to make it victorious over all religions even though the polytheists hate [it]." (9:33)

You are fighting for Allah's word to be the highest. A man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and said, "A man fights out of fanatical bias, and out of bravery, and out of a desire to be seen. So which of that is in Allah's path?" He replied, "The one who fights for Allah's word to be the highest is in Allah's path."

You are not a movement of national liberation, nor a front of nationalistic unity, nor captives to the borders of Sykes-Picot. No, you in the environs of Jerusalem are the vanguard of the one Muslim Ummah, which doesn't differentiate between an Arab and a non-Arab, and you are defending one of the holiest of its places to expel the invaders from it and establish in it the state of Islam which includes all Muslims without national distinctions or nationalist bias. The Truth, Exalted is He, says:

"Verily, this Ummah of yours is one Ummah, and I am your Lord, so worship Me [and Me Alone]." (21:92)

This is your responsibility, and this is what you have been entrusted with.

I also congratulate the Muslims in Iraq, who have lifted the head of the Muslim Ummah high with their heroic Jihadi confrontation with the Crusader invaders and their allies, the traitorous religion-traders. And I send my congratulations to the Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq, the Mujahid Shaykh Abu Umar al-Baghdadi and all groups of the champion Mujahideen engaged in Jihad in defense of Iraq of the Caliphate. And I call them to unite and be as one in accordance with the command of Allah, the Most High and Glorious, and His Messenger, peace be upon him.

I also congratulate the Muslims in Afghanistan under the leadership of the Commander of the Faithful, Mulla Muhammad Umar, and I call on them to turn to their Lord in praise and thanks for the resolution, steadfastness and consecutive victories He has bestowed on them in the face of Crusader America, the strongest power in the world, and its Crusader allies and religion-trading agents who sold Jihad for American dollars and so the Lord exposed them in a historic scandal which will be handed down from generation to generation.

I also send my congratulations to the patient, resolute Muslims in Kashmir, in whose pain and suffering the bribe-taker Musharraf is doing business. And I remind them that they must liberate their Jihad from the commanders of military intelligence, worshipers of the American dollar, for a Jihad led by the military intelligence that rushes madly for the salaries of the American embassy is destined for nothing but failure and unnecessary wasting of lives and spilling of blood.

I also congratulate my Mujahid brothers in Chechnya, and give them the good news that Allah's victory is near and its first signs have already appeared. Here's the leader of the Crusaders reeling in Iraq and Afghanistan, so be severe against its followers, those who live on its aid and backing in the Caucasus.

I also congratulate my brothers, the Mujahideen in Indonesia and the Philippines, who are confronting with patience and steadfastness a barbaric Crusade in defense of the eastern frontiers of Islam.

I also congratulate my Muslim brothers in Somalia, and encourage them to be firm in defense of the honor of Islam and Muslims in East Africa.

I also congratulate my brother Mujahideen in Algeria, who were put to the test by trials and purified by convulsions, yet only increased in resoluteness and strength in the face of the Franco-American Crusade and its sons, the traitors.

And I congratulate my Mujahid brothers in Yemen of wisdom and faith, those who have long rubbed America's nose in the dirt, and I call on them to continue their blessed Jihad against America and its servants, and to shower on them blow after blow, and to pay no heed to the misconceptions of those who make the interest of the Da'wah cancel and stop the Jihad. those who appointed Ali Abdullah Salih, the agent of America, as a legitimate leader of the Muslims whom it is forbidden to oppose. So let America be happy with their fatwas which bless its agent, and let the Crusader West thrill at their misconceptions which protect its interests and prevent the Ummah from carrying out the individual duty of Jihad against it.

And I also congratulate my brothers working in Jihadi media, and I ask Allah to reward them well for their fine, blessed efforts. And I encourage them to expend even more effort in Allah's path, for they have spoiled the enemies' publicity campaigns, by the grace of Allah. And I call on them to combine their efforts in compliance with the orders of Allah and His Messenger. May Allah bless their efforts, grant them His victory, and may they - Allah permitting - be the seed of the media of the Caliphate state which is coming with Allah's permission.

I also congratulate my captive brothers everywhere: in Guantanamo and the secret and open prisons of America; in Bagram, Abu Ghrayb, al-Ha'ir, and al-Ruways; in Tura, Abu Za'bal, and the desert prisons of Algeria; and in Shatanuf, bin Aknun, and all the prisons of the Crusaders, Jews and their agents, the traitorous rulers of the lands of Islam. And I promise them that freeing them is a debt on our shoulders as long as there remains in us a vein which beats or a breath which returns, with Allah's help and power.

And I congratulate my captive brothers in the prisons of the traitor Mubarak, and I ask Allah to accept their steadfastness in the face of the carrot-and-stick policies practiced by the regime as a service to America and Israel, in order to involve them in the same thing the backtrackers became involved in, those who sold their religion for cheap worldly crumbs, and accordingly they condemned Khalid al-Islambouli, Allah have mercy on him, and recognized Mubarak as Commander of the Faithful, in order for America to be satisfied with them so they could leave prison to subsist as middlemen and eyes for the State Investigative Security Department, and what a terrible subsistence.

Al-Mutanabbi says:

Lowly is he who envies the life of lowliness
That life which death is perhaps better than
Any leniency shown in the absence of power
Is an excuse resorted to by the ignoble ones
Humiliation is easy for he who accepts it
For the corpse is not pained by the wound

And I congratulate my brothers, the knights of Tawhid and its callers and scholars in the prisons of the American state of Al Saud, those who exposed its American "Tawhid", which orders Al Saud to serve the Crusader forces which bomb the Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, and which orders them to recognize Israel and abandon Palestine, as articulated by Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz in his initiative which the fanatical Zionist Thomas Friedman dictated to him.American "Tawhid", which calls on them to promise to protect the security of Israel from the attacks of the Mujahideen, when they signed accords with Israel and the senior criminals in that regard in the Sharm al-Shaykh conference.American "Tawhid", which incites them to bleed dry the petrol and pump it at the cheapest of rates to consume the Ummah's treasure, and which calls on them, despite their massive income, to keep their army weak, flabby and for show only, in order for them to continue to be dependant on the West and appeal to it to occupy their country and defend them.

I congratulate my brothers, the knights of Tawhid and its callers and scholars in the prisons of the American state of Al Saud, who have exposed - and continue to expose - through their resoluteness and steadfastness the scholars of beggary and court muftis whom Al Saud have gathered around them to depict them as infallible imams and to strive in vain to veil their treachery and collusion with the enemies of the Ummah.

And I congratulate every captive Muslim woman in Abu Ghrayb, Lazughli and all prisons of the idol-kings in the lands of Islam, and I promise them that their revenge shall not be forgotten, and that if we are unable to carry it out during our lifetimes, we shall bequeath it to those after us, and that the dogs who attacked them shall only be saved from us by death, with Allah's help and power.

And I congratulate every mother and wife grieving over a martyr or missing a prisoner. And I congratulate every orphan or son of a captive separated by the Crusaders and idol-kings from his father.

And I congratulate every Muslimah observant of her Hijab and chastity in the face of the fierce Crusade against the Hijab, which exposes their immorality, decline and degeneration. And she should know that the Hijab, symbol of her modesty and purity, tears them apart inside, because it exposes the depravity of their civilization. And I remind her that by holding fast to her Hijab and Deen, she is a soldier in the battle of Islam against the Zionist Crusade and its helpers, the traitorous idol-kings.

I congratulate them all, and I say to them that the Muslim Ummah, victorious if Allah permits, and its brave Mujahid vanguard are seizing the dawn of victory from the darkness of despair and repression, with the help of Allah, who said in His Honorable Book,

"How many of the Prophets fought, and with them were large bands of godly men, but they never lost heart at what befell them in Allah's way, nor did they weaken nor give in. And Allah loves those who persevere. All that they said was, 'Our Lord, forgive us our sins and our transgression; establish our feet firmly; and help us against the unbelieving people. And Allah gave them a reward in this world, and the excellent reward of the hereafter, for Allah loves those who do good." (3:146-148)

Congratulations to you all, and may Allah accept from us and from you.

And our final prayer is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and prayers be on our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions.

Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri
December 31, 2006
11 Dhu al-Hijjah 1427 AH

 

In Memoriam

"And the Living Shall Take to Heart"

"It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living shall take to heart." Ecclesiastes (7:2)

When one goes to a place of mourning, anecdotes describing the fine qualities of the deceased are usually shared. The living can learn from these stories and improve themselves by emulating the characteristics of the person who has passed on.
Various projects have helped carry on Ari's legacy and have spread Ari's message of love and hope for the world to share.

ARI HALBERSTAM MEMORIAL FUND
ARI HALBERSTAM MEMORIAL RAMP
ARI HALBERSTAM SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
JEWISH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
ARI'S LAW
TORAH SCROLL
AMBULANCE



The Ari Halberstam Memorial Fund

This fund was established in 1994, following the brutal shooting of Ari Halberstam. The fund organizes fund raising campaigns to distribute funds to various causes. Ari's fund helps give educational scholarships to underprivileged students and works closely with other community organizations in their fund raising efforts. Many of the following projects were funded by the Ari Halberstam Memorial Fund.

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The Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp
It's a world famous landmark that New Yorkers are proud of. But for Jews, the Brooklyn Bridge is also a bitter reminder of the anti-Semitic violence that killed Ari Halberstam, and injured Nochum Sosonkin for life. Thousands of people ride the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp daily, and remember the young boy whose life was taken because he was a Jew.

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The Ari Halberstam Sportsmanship Award
When Ari used to return home from a full day of learning at his Crown Heights yeshiva, he would rush to the basketball court across from his house and pound out his energy in a basketball game. He was a basketball hero. Ever since Ari's life was taken, his teammates feel it's not the same anymore. Ari's life and ability in sports are honored annually by Barry Panzer, who coaches the basketball league at Kingsway Jewish Center by dedicating an award in memory of this teenager who was on equally strong footing in the basketball court as he was in the bais medrash (house of study). Panzer, who started the league for 5 to 12 year-old yeshiva day school students two years ago, noted that newspaper articles described Ari as a sports fan and basketball player, he therefore named an award in his memory for players who represent sportsmanship, team spirit, and positive values. Ari has become a role model for young players to emulate, because he was a boy who loved basketball as well as Torah.

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The Jewish Children's Museum
The multi-media Jewish Children's Museum, the first of its kind in the world, is schedule to open in the year 2001. At a site on Brooklyn's Museum Row, at the junction of Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue. It will be easily accessible by car and public transportation from all points of the New York Metropolitan area. The six-story, 50,000 square foot facility, a $19.5 million project of Tzivos Hashem: Jewish Children International, will accommodate up to 1000 visitors per day - over 200,000 per year. It will excite and educate children with the kinds of film, video and interactive presentations they respond to. They will visit the museum not just as observers, but also as participants. Through Virtual Reality presentations, they will touch and feel the varied textures of Jewish life in all parts of the world, and enter the worlds of their great-grandparents. Some exhibitions include:
Groundbreaking ceremony for Museum
The Jewish life cycle, Shabbat comes first, the Jewish holidays, Jewish biblical history, daily Jewish life, the land of Israel, arts and education resources, Jewish cooking, and much, much more! A prime site has been acquired and cleared. The architectural firm of Gwathmey Siegel and Associates, world-renowned for hundreds of projects including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Addition and the American Museum of The Moving Image, has created a design which will be contemporary yet timeless. The exhibits themselves are being created by the incomparable exhibit design firm of Douglas Gallagher, whose works includes many of Washington's Smithsonian Institutional exhibits and hundreds of others. The Jewish Children's Museum will be a place of both high excitement and deep thought. A place that will instruct, inform, inspire, and involved. A place that will give all Jewish Children a greater insight into who they are. In addition, the Museum also provides a setting for non-Jewish children to gain a positive perspective and awareness of the Jewish heritage, fostering tolerance and understanding. The Jewish Children's Museum is being dedicated to Ari Halberstam. Ari's mother Devorah, feels the Museum will perpetuate Ari's zest for life and love for his heritage. Mrs. Halberstam is also the Director of Foundation and Government Services for the museum. If you have any questions or would like more information, please call (718)-467-0600.

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Ari's Law
Sample GUNKIT Advertisement
The March 1 shooting on the Brooklyn Bridge was committed with an automatic weapon assembled from a mail-order gun kit. Ari's Law would require a license in order to possess a Gun Kit from which a firearm could be produced. Recently (June 1, 2000) a Press Conference was held in front of the Brooklyn Bridge with Devorah Halberstam and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan). Nadler said he'd introduce a bill to extend the federal ban on the sale of firearms by mail to include key parts, such as a barrel, stock or any part of the action. He and other gun-control advocates said sales of gun kits are increasing through the Internet and gun magazines. The ad that is shown here is typical of gun magazines, and is actually one of the guns Baz used in the shooting. For $160, buyers can obtain most of the parts of an automatic weapon, which Nadler contends then can be easily turned into functioning firearms. He said he expects opposition to his bill from the National Rifle Association, "because the NRA is nuts." Except for the Brooklyn Bridge attack, the gun kits have not been a problem in New York, according to police.

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Torah Scroll
Ari's grandfather dancing with the Torah
To mark the first yartzeit (day of passing) of Ari, a Torah Scroll was completed and donated to the high school Ari attended. Using a quill, a Jewish scribe, Ari's uncle, began the tedious and intense process of copying more than 300,000 letters of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, onto a parchment scroll. Each Hebrew character is written in the same style, and with the same tools, that Jews have used since the time of Moses, more than 3,500 years ago. The evening began with the mourner's Kaddish. Then, hundreds of participants took their turn writing their very own letter in the Torah scroll. The Torah was then dressed in a coat of rich fabric on which the names of the donors were embroidered. It was also adorned with a silver crown. The Torah was then paraded under the chupah (canopy). The Chupah is used because spiritually the Torah is the bride of the Jewish people and, like a bride, has a cherished place in their hearts. Hundreds of people held torches as the Torah was escorted to the synagogue. There, everyone took turns dancing with the Torah, for the great joy of having a scroll written and completed in the memory of a boy who died sanctifying the name of G-d. Shown, is a picture of Ari's grandfather dancing with the Torah.

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Ambulance
A completely out fitted ambulance was dedicated and given to the Hatzolah Community Services Organization. It is in these ways that we are able to turn such tragedy and pain into light and positivity. Each time that ambulance goes out to save another life we are honoring Ari's memory and keeping him alive in our hearts and minds.

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With Iran's nuclear designs and the simmering war in Lebanon dominating international headlines, it's easy to forget about Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, where the big news right now is smog-fomenting fires in Sumatra and Borneo and the absence of last year's promised bird-flu funding. But a new survey there is a reminder of the country's long-term import in the war on terror.
More than two-thirds of Indonesians favor the country's current secular system of law, according to a privately funded nationwide survey by the Indonesian Survey Circle, a pollster. Just over two-thirds of respondents disapprove of the death penalty for those who renounce Islam, More than three-quarters of Indonesians disapprove of mandatory head scarves.


Although the numbers arent the best, there are obviously moderates here.

 

In East Asia, 'Arab Islam' and moderate Islam are clashing. In India, orthodox thinking is flourishing--and that's a good thing.
By Akbar Ahmed


The Rise of "Arab Islam"
Bali, Indonesia, April 7, 2006

We're in the third phase of our journey--in East Asia, where Islam came not through warriors, not through conquerors, but through Sufis and traders and scholars. So traditionally, it's a much more gentle form of Islam. Islam here is more about Sufi-influences and tolerance and moderation, about balancing between faith and worldly aspirations. And the Muslims here are interactive with the other world civilizations, especially Hinduism and Buddhism, and Confucian philosophy.
So you can see it's a very different atmosphere for Islam than that of the Middle East, an environment of openness to Eastern faiths and cultures. The giants of this region are China, Japan, and Indonesia--the largest Muslim nation in the world with a population of 220 million people. It’s an extremely important country to monitor in terms of feelings, philosophies, and interpretations of the Islamic faith.

How can there be a clash between moderates and extremists...there ARE no moderates right?!?

 

way to much cut and paste on this thread. We need some paraphrasing around here.

 

Azyumardi Azra, rector of the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN), said it is “simplistic” to think of Indonesian Islam as the same as Islam in the Middle East. Because of its slow, peaceful penetration over centuries, accommodating to and integrating with local beliefs and customs, and because of the less rigid structure of Indonesian traditional society (including the active role of women in public life), the conventional wisdom of Indonesian Islam as tolerant, inclusive and inherently compatible with democracy is valid. It should not give way to the influence of radical factions that have risen in recent years.
The head of Indonesia’s most venerable state institution to promote liberal Islamic studies and to integrate religious and secular education in the country, Professor Azra associated the most democratizing Muslim countries, as listed by Freedom House in New York, as being the “least Arabicized.” (Freedom House listed Indonesia along with Bangladesh, Nigeria and Iran.)

 

I think I have made my point...there are moderate muslims in this world, they are not all evil and to typify them as all evil is small minded and bigoted...

I have NEVER denied that there is, without doubt, a large contingent of muslim radicals who preach hate and commit violence...so there is nothing having to do with that fact that needs to be proven to me, anyone who denies that there are a lot of bad muslims in this world is crazy.

All wanted to show was that there are quite a few moderate muslims who dont get heard...and many more who do not have a platform...my wife and her family for instance...they are moderate but unless you know them and talk to them you would not know this as they are just small business people who do not issue statements to the press. It is a bone of contention that my wife thinks Bush is a one of the greatest presidents in US history!!

To vilify ALL muslims as evil and radical is no better than to typify ALL jews as evil, or all christians as evil...its just not true and it is divisive propaganda and makes one no better than the bigots on the other side...it makes you radical.

That was all I wanted to end with. Simply that the idea that there are no moderate muslims is completely untrue.

 

Unless you mean Solomon Rushdie, no there aren't. At least not enough to be of importance with regard to organized religion and politics.

BTW - you do realize that the above quote is non-sense. There is as of now religious based violence in every Islamic dominated country on the planet from Turkey and Somolia to Mayashia and the Philipines.

Ruben

Ruben

 

What's blonde, has big breasts and lives in Tasmania?"

"Salman Rushdie," says the author with a chuckle.

No longer hiding undercover from a fatwa, Rushdie can now joke about it. But as someone who had a close encounter with religious fundamentalism long before "jihad" became part of the daily vocabulary of the West, he takes the issue with deadly seriousness. His latest novel, Shalimar the Clown, is set against the backdrop of a world of fundamentalist terror, and in a recent op-ed in the Washington Post he called for reformation in Islam.

Pacific News Service editor Sandip Roy recently interviewed Rushdie on the radio.

After the bombings in London, some people said the British concept of multiculturalism had allowed London to become 'Londonistan,' offering shelter to violent extremists.

SALMAN RUSHDIE: That's not the fault of multiculturalism. The mistake was a deliberate government policy to allow radical Islamic groups to come in and set up shop in London, to set up bank accounts and come and go as they pleased. The justification was twofold -- one was if you did that you would be able to monitor them, and the other was if you gave them safe haven they would not attack their own safe haven. On July 7 both those arguments went out the window.

But when Tony Blair says you can deport people for inciting hatred are you not punishing people for what they are saying, not doing? You yourself said, "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist."

The decline of Blairite politics into the kind of arrogance and opportunism that now characterizes his government is one of the great disappointments I can remember. I don't trust Blair and his new laws further than I can throw them.

But I have to say the expulsion of some of those Londonistan figures I would not grieve about at all. Taking off my liberal hat for a moment, to throw out some of these firebrand mullahs who have been working up kids like these kids who blew themselves up, frankly I wouldn't give a damn. But there is a problem when you define offense so broadly that you can kick out anyone whose face you don't like. And given the authoritarian nature of the government one has to be very, very worried.

You are calling for a reformation in Islam. What do you mean?

In a way maybe the use of the word "reformation" was wrong. That makes people think about Martin Luther. And the Christian reformation was a Puritan movement and that would be a movement in the wrong direction.

But I was talking about a reform movement. The purpose of that would be to reclaim Islam from the radicals. Islamic radicalism is relatively new. It had much less power 30 years ago. I think back to my grandfather, who was an extremely devout Muslim and went on the Haj to Mecca, but nevertheless an extremely open-minded and tolerant man. That's why I dedicate this book to him. Even though he was devout and I am not religious, he was a kind of model for me.

But does a call for reform, coming from a writer who many thousands of Muslims regard as blasphemous, have any legitimacy?

You are right. There are many who will never listen to anything I say because it's me saying it. That's fair enough. I am not asking to lead anything. I am not asking to even be a part of anything. What I am saying is if something like this does not happen, the danger is that all Muslims will begin to seem as if they are complying with the activities of the radicals. If there isn't a strong rejectionist voice, many people, particularly in the diaspora where Muslims are in the minority, will readily come to think that if you are not rejecting the stuff, that's what you secretly think. That would be catastrophic.

But standing up to extremism is hard. In 1990 you yourself published a statement of remorse.

There were enormous pressures on me, including government pressure to make some kind of gesture. But I regretted doing it. I felt the thing that gives me credibility is I say exactly what I think. And if I compromise that I lose myself and that's what I felt briefly at that moment. So I tried rapidly to un-say it.

But I think there are voices out there beginning to speak up. In response to the piece I wrote (for the Washington Post), a lot of people wrote and said they agreed.

What is the best thing the United States and the West can do to facilitate this reform? Just stay out of it?

The danger is to do deals with the bad guys. I think the problem is the West, for its own economic purposes, makes agreements and thus shores up regimes that would more easily fall. We support regimes that in another part of the forest we condemn.

In the end I don't want this to be a story of what the West is doing to the East. Because I found all my life as a writer it was too easy to make that statement. The more interesting thing to say is suppose this is our own fault, supposing we are doing this to ourselves. The reason why I try to stress the need for changes inside the Muslim world is not that I don't believe there is racism, of course there is racism, it's not that I don't believe there is oppression, of course there is oppression. What I am saying is that to take responsibility for your life is a better way to live than to assume you are an endless victim.

Digg!

Sandip Roy (sandip@pacificnews.org) is host of "Upfront," the Pacific News Service weekly radio program on KALW-FM, San Francisco.

 

Arab Press

PA Text Books Cite ´Protocols´, Reject Peace
16:36 Jul 12, '05 / 5 Tammuz 5765
By Ezra HaLevi


A report on the textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority was released Monday, exposing the teaching of Islamic supremacy, the illegitimacy of Israel and citing an infamous forgery as fact.


The report was published by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), a non-governmental organization whose stated purpose is to “encourage a climate of tolerance and mutual respect between peoples and nations, founded on the rejection of violence and the changing of negative stereotypes, as a means to resolving conflicts.”

CMIP’s director of research, Arnon Groiss, spoke with Israel National Radio's Yishai & Malkah Fleisher. Groiss, who compiled and translated the material from the PA school books, said the findings left little room for optimism.

“[The school books] follow the same line of non-recognition of Israel as a sovereign state, non-recognition of the Jewish people as having rights in the country and non-recognition of anything that belongs to Jews – including holy places – nothing. Holy places are all Muslim, whether they say they are ‘used by Jews’ or ‘Jews claim’ such places are holy,” Groiss said.

The assertion that the “occupation” began in 1948 is another central aspect of the school books that Groiss finds particularly alarming. “Haifa and the Sea of Galilee and the Negev are all Palestinian. They never say ‘Israeli territory’ - it is only the ‘lands of 1948,’” Groiss said.

“They are not so explicit in the books because they know they will be scrutinized. They are much more subtle than Syrian, Saudi Arabian and Egyptian text books,” he said. “But the struggle for liberation will not end at the borders of 1967, this [message] is very clear. They do not say it explicitly, but the hint is very well understood, I believe, and the teacher is there to explain if necessary.”

The seasoned translator and research director says that the inclusion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a historical document is a disturbing feature of one of the 10th grade history text books. “For the first time in the history of text-book publishing in the PA, they claim the Protocols of Zion as a valid document, saying it was a resolution of the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897.”

Groiss read from a 10th grade PA textbook: “There is a group of confidential resolutions adopted by the Congress and known by the name ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, the goal of which is world domination. They were brought to light by Sergey Nilos and translated into Arabic by Muhammad Khalifa Al-Tunisi.”

In fact, Nilos, a Russian priest, authored the “Protocols” at the behest of the Czarist secret police.

“Our reports are made up of quotations taken directly from the books as-is,” Groiss said, reading a passage (“The martyrs rank is above all ranks”) from a fifth-grade grammar book. “Analysis is presented at the conclusion of the report.”

Some of the report’s conclusions include:

* “The city of Jerusalem is portrayed as exclusively Arab. Nothing is said about the strong connection of the Jews to the city historically and at present, both religiously and nationally. The fact that the Jews constitute the absolute majority in the city today, and have done so for some 120 years, and that it serves as Israel’s capital are ignored. Jewish holy places there are not mentioned as such. Rather, it is said that Jerusalem is facing Israeli attempts at Judaization.”

* “Islam and the Muslims are portrayed as superior to all other religions and their respective followers. For example, the Qur'an alone is safeguarded by God against loss and distortion, unlike sacred books of other religions, and Jews and Christians – unlike Muslims – are not part of ‘Abraham's nation’.”

* “The Jews are hardly mentioned in historical contexts either in antiquity or in modern times (except in a special section on Zionism). Their strong historical ties to Palestine are virtually ignored – even in Christian Education textbooks that speak of Old and New Testament events. At the same time, the Canaanites, and all other ancient nations in the region, are presented as Arab nations, the forebears of the Arabs, including the Palestinians, of today.”

* “Israel is not recognized as a sovereign state. Its name does not appear on any of the maps where, in some cases, the name “Palestine” appears instead…”

* “Israel’s image is wholly negative: It has been an occupying entity since 1948 [emphasis added], exclusively responsible for the Palestinian Catastrophe of that year and the source of violence.”

* “Peace with Israel is never mentioned, let alone encouraged. Indeed there is at least one text that holds out the hope of final victory and the disappearance of the Israelis as such from the region. The Oslo Accord of 1993 is now presented as part of the violent struggle against Israel and inserted between the two Intifadas of 1987 and 2000.”

* “Positive references to ‘martyrs’ and ‘prisoners-of-war’ within the context of the struggle against Israel.”

CMIP did find a few “minute changes for the better,” Groiss said. They include:

* "There is one sentence in which the phrase 'the State of Israel' appears within quotation marks. Israel’s pre-1967 territory is never mentioned as such and phrases like “the 1948 areas” are used instead. There are cases in which Palestine replaces Israel as the sovereign state in the region. Regions, sites and cities within pre-1967 Israel are described as Palestinian and once or twice the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are implicitly described as part of a larger Palestine. On the other hand, there is a sole reference to Israel as a sovereign state in an official document issued by Christian religious leaders, which is quoted in a Christian Education textbook."

* "One piece of literature presents a dead enemy soldier as a human being."

Groiss hopes that the publication of the report can lead to improvements in the PA educational system through external pressure to make reforms in the school books.

“I believe there are three main elements that should be inserted in books,” Groiss said. “First: some sort of recognition of the other party in the conflict – interests, rights, something – at least something. Second: stopping the process of stereotyping the other and giving some objective and valid information about the individual Jew or Israel for example. Third: trying to advocate for peace based on real reconciliation with the other.”

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Published: 18:37 July 11, 2005
Last Update: 16:36 July 12, 2005

 

The Iconoclast

Salman Rushdie discusses free speech, fundamentalism, America's place in the world, and his new essay collection

Shikha Dalmia | August/September 2005 Print Edition

Salman Rushdie is a political novelist whose political and novelistic instincts have long been in tension with each other. From age 15 he was drawn to the Marxist left, an attraction that eventually led him to the jungles of Nicaragua as a guest of the Sandinista regime. The result was 1987's The Jaguar Smile, which issued an overly optimistic account of Nicaragua's future under its socialist rulers. The book made Rushdie a darling of the left and a pariah among conservatives.

Rushdie's novelistic sensibility, in contrast to his political sensibility, is individualistic, even entrepreneurial: Even at age 58 he is a literary risk-taker, a stance underscored by the title of his new essay collection, Step Across This Line.

At a time when Western writings about India were dominated by E. M. Forster�style nostalgia about the Raj, Rushdie wrote Midnight's Children (1980), an Indian perspective on the end of colonial rule. The book's most remarkable feature was that instead of adapting India to fit the prevailing English idiom and style, as most writers, Western and Indian, had done until then, Rushdie adapted English to fit India. He invented a whole new prose and narrative style to capture the colorful, chaotic, and cacophonous reality of his homeland. Breaking from cool Forsterian tones, Rushdie's prose has a frenetic energy that is enhanced by a generous peppering of Hindi and Urdu words used without italics, much less explanation, as if India's bustling polyglot cities leave no time for such linguistic courtesies.

Rushdie's literary iconoclasm derives not merely from the demands of his subject matter but from a deep personal instinct: his hatred of all orthodoxies, especially religious ones. Although he grew up in a Muslim household, he rejected his faith at a young age and still remains a resolute unbeliever. While Rushdie's literary iconoclasm has earned him a place in the pantheon of the world's great contemporary writers, his religious iconoclasm has not produced such happy results. His 1988 book The Satanic Verses included a parody of Islam that incensed Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, who charged Rushdie with apostasy and issued a fatwa calling for his death.

For years the fatwa forced Rushdie into hiding in London. It cost him his marriage and isolated him from his young son. The book was banned in India and he was barred from his homeland. Desperate to resume normal life, Rushdie apologized to Muslims and even formally converted to Islam, a move that he later repudiated.

 

An iconoclast's soul cannot come to terms with tyranny. In Rushdie's case, the ordeal of being hunted and censored heightened the tension between his political and literary sensibilities, sparking--to use the Marxist term--an inner dialectic. That experience has brought him around to a fundamental libertarian concern: freedom.

It is a theme repeatedly examined in the essays that make up Step Across This Line, which were written in the post-fatwa years. Now based in New York, Rushdie visited Michigan State University this spring to lecture on the book.

Shikha Dalmia, a freelance writer who emigrated from India to Michigan, interviewed Rushdie during his stay.

Reason: Step Across This Line is about crossing frontiers--physical, metaphorical, moral. The biggest frontier you've crossed is from being a free, ordinary man to being a hunted man. How did that affect your writing?

Salman Rushdie: The most direct effect was that I lost the equivalent of one novel. There was so much time and effort and stress dedicated to fighting the threats and getting them reversed, there were long stretches when I had no time to work because these other things took precedence.

���� In terms of the actual content of the writings, I'm not sure. It is very hard for me to separate what's just a side effect of growing older and getting more experience and what is specifically attributable to that threat. I suppose I became more intellectually engaged in the subject of freedom. If you live in free countries you don't have to spend all your life arguing about freedom because it is all around you. It seems redundant to make a lot of noise about something when, in fact, there it is. But if someone tries to remove it, it becomes important for you to formulate your own defenses of it.

���� The thing I feared most after the fatwa was that there were a number of ways my writing could be derailed by that attack. In a literary sense, I was afraid I would write much more cautious books. Or alternatively, that I would become embittered and write more hostile books. I realized that both of these outcomes would be catastrophes, because that would make me entirely a creature of the event. I would stop being the writer I had set out to be, and I would become the writer who had been recreated because of the attack on Satanic Verses. I told myself very early on that I wasn't going to fall into those elephant traps.

Reason: Had the fatwa come earlier in your career, do you think it would have derailed your efforts to find yourself as a writer?

Rushdie: Very possibly. It almost did derail me. But I think I had enough under my belt and enough sense of where I wanted to go as a writer that I was able to go on.

Reason: Do you think freedom of speech is threatened by cultural relativism--by the idea that principles like free expression are not universal truths but simply local cultural constructs?

Rushdie: The idea of universal rights--the idea of rights that are universal to all people because they correspond to our natures as human beings, not to where we live or what our cultural background is--is an incredibly important one. This belief is being challenged by apostles of cultural relativism who refuse to accept that such rights exist. If you look at those who employ this idea, it turns out to be Robert Mugabe, the leaders of China, the leaders of Singapore, the Taliban, Ayatollah Khomeini. It is a dangerous belief that everything is relative and therefore these people should be allowed to kill because it's their culture to kill.

���� I think we live in a bad age for the free speech argument. Many of us have internalized the censorship argument, which is that it is better to shut people up than to let them say things that we don't like. This is a dangerous slippery slope, because people of good intentions and high principles can see censorship as a way of advancing their cause and not as a terrible mistake. Yet bad ideas don't cease to exist by not being expressed. They fester and become more powerful.

Reason: The fatwa was in some ways a precursor to September 11. It was the clearest indication of the threat Islamic fundamentalism posed to freedom, pluralism, secularism, and everything we love about the West. You called on Western leaders at that time to unite to defeat the forces of tyranny and terrorism, the "witch-burners" as you called them, pointing out that this was not about religion but about domination and control. Did the West respond?

Rushdie: Pretty slowly. I think eventually it did. One of the things that was interesting was that on both sides of that argument there were people who wanted to describe this as an exceptional event. People who were on my side wished to say that this was an exceptionally horrible attack on a writer and therefore required exceptional resources to defend it. People who were not on my side said that I had done something so exceptionally horrible that the rules of free speech didn't apply. But on both sides of the argument, there was a desire not to make it typical of anything. It didn't prove that Islam was against free speech. It was just against this horrible abuse of it. It didn't prove that there was a large problem of this sort. It just proved that a particularly insane dying religious leader had made a particularly insane fanatical threat.

���� And when I tried to say that this is not just me, that it is happening in a lot of places to a lot of writers and you need to look at that larger phenomenon, it was often seen as special pleading. This was seen as me trying to attach my case to others to justify myself. It was very difficult to get anyone to see that there was a growing phenomenon that needed to be taken seriously: the attempt to control thought.

���� This is at the front line of Islamic radicalism. There are all kinds of things that come behind it. You know what [Iranian sociologist] Ali Shariati called the "revolt against history." That's the project of tyranny and unreason which wishes to freeze a certain view of Islamic culture in time and silence the progressive voices in the Muslim world calling for a free and prosperous future.

���� People weren't interested in hearing about this at the time. And then along comes 9/11, and now many people say that, in hindsight, the fatwa was the prologue and this is the main event.

Reason: You wrote an essay criticizing President Bush and other Western leaders for claiming after 9/11 that "this is not about Islam." In what way is this about Islam?

Rushdie: Well, you know, that was said for good reasons. It was said to minimize the backlash against Muslims. But just in terms of actual fact, it is absurd. It is not about football.

���� The fact that it is about a particular idea of Islam that many Muslims would reject does not mean it is not about Islam. The Christian Coalition is still about Christianity, even if it's an idea of Christianity that many Christians might not go along with.

Reason: What they mean is that it is not about Islam properly understood. That it is about certain extreme followers of Islam who might not be interpreting the religion correctly.

Rushdie: Yes, but Wahhabi Islam is becoming very powerful these days. To say that it is not about Islam is to not take the world as it really is.

Reason: They are trying to make sure that Islam does not become synonymous with terrorism in the public mind.

Rushdie: Of course, there is nothing intrinsic linking any religion with any act of violence. The crusades don't prove that Christianity was violent. The Inquisition doesn't prove that Christianity tortures people. But that Christianity did torture people. This Islam did carry out this attack.

���� I think there is a desire, for virtuous reasons, to make this disassociation. You can respect those reasons, but there is a problem of truth. It reminds me a little bit of what Western socialists used to say during the worst excesses of the Soviet Union. They would say that that's not really socialism. There is a real socialism that is about liberty, social justice, and so on, but that tyrannical regime over there which was actually existing socialism is not really Marxism. The problem was that that's what there was. When that fell, in a way that whole intellectual construct of socialism fell with it. It became very difficult to ignore all these people coming out of the Soviet Union who detested the term socialism, because to them it meant tyranny. I think there is beginning to be that kind of disconnect in the discourse about Islam. There is an actually existing Islam which is not at all likeable.

���� There may well be another alternative. I grew up in a Muslim family in India, and I know what is meant by that other Islam. My grandfather was a very religious man. He went to Mecca for the Hajj and prayed five times a day. Yet he was the most tolerant and open person I ever met. If you go into any Muslim country, you will find that dispute between radical Islam and moderate Islam. It is not a question of how the West perceives the East, but of what's happening inside the East. If you go to Muslims in India, they can tell you immediately about that battle with those other Muslims. For example, the kind of Islam that is being forced on Kashmir is very much a kind of Arabist Islam, which is alien to Kashmir. It is not liked by Kashmiris, who have a more Sufistic tradition, which is much more mystical and much milder.

���� The problem is, how do you tell the truth while not demonizing the people who don't deserve to be demonized?

 

Reason: If you were President's Bush's speechwriter, how would you do it?

Rushdie: You would just have to make that argument. You have to say, "Not everybody is like this, but this is a part of what there is." This is the problem with the truth. Truth is never one-dimensional. It is contradictory sometimes. But politics wants clarity.

���� My job is not to make a politician's life easier. As for Bush's speechwriters, I have met some of them, and they are very able people.

Reason: Where does this leave us on the question of democratic reform in Islamic countries? Do you think that Islam lacks a crucial piece to build a foundation for freedom?

Rushdie: What it has is an extra piece that believes that religion can be the foundation for a state. It's a question of removing that piece rather than adding something. There have been various moments in the history of Pakistan when attempts to Islamize the country were resisted strongly by both generals and civilian governments. It's not inevitable that a country full of Muslims will seek to Islamize its structures. But I do think there is a need for a widespread realization among Muslims that you cannot build a state based on religion. Pakistan is proof of that. Here was a state that was built on religion, but a quarter of a century after it was founded it fell apart, because the glue is not strong enough.

Reason: There is a debate in the West as well about the best way to separate church and state. America's constitutional formula was designed to keep the state neutral, not hostile, to religion. France and Turkey go a bit further in using the state to actively secularize their country. Where do you stand on using the state as a force for secularization?

Rushdie: In this particular case, I think that the French have more or less got it right, if I may be allowed to use the F word. The idea of separating church and state was exported into the American constitution from France courtesy of Tom Paine. The idea was central to France ever since the French revolution, that the church has no part in the state.

���� The First Amendment is one of the great achievements of any democracy anywhere. It jointly supports the freedom of religious belief and the freedom of expression. They are both in the same clause. And it is interesting to see that. Because what it means is that of course people need to be free to believe what they choose to believe but the state is not going to favor any of those beliefs.

���� But there is an important difference between Europe and the United States. In Europe, the Enlightenment of the 18th century was seen as a battle against the desire of the Church to limit intellectual freedom, a battle against the Inquisition, a battle against religious censorship. And the victory of the Enlightenment in Europe was seen as pushing religion away from the center of power. In America, at the same time, the Enlightenment meant coming to a country where people were not going to persecute you by reason of your religion. So it meant a liberation into religion. In Europe, it was liberation out of religion.

���� It becomes hard in this country to have a dialogue suggesting that religion be removed from the state. Even though this is the theory of this country, it is decreasingly the practice of this country.

���� I was very struck when Joe Lieberman was chosen as the vice-presidential candidate, and there was a certain amount of rubbish talked about whether Americans would vote for a Jewish candidate. I remember a big opinion poll taken by The New York Times in which people were asked whether they would accept as a presidential candidate a woman, a Jew, an African American, a homosexual, and an atheist. In four of those five measures, the result was resoundingly yes, by a gigantic majority, but for an atheist it was no better than 50-50. Somebody who overtly professes not to have religion can't get elected dog catcher in this country. That's a problem, because it creates a political discourse full of sanctimony. Hypocrisy sanctified by religion.

Reason: Leftist intellectuals have typically viewed world politics as a struggle between the powerful West and the powerless Third World. For some, 9/11 changed this--one person who did a complete turnaround is your friend Christopher Hitchens, to whom Step Across This Line is dedicated, who has become an enthusiastic supporter of the Bush foreign policy. Arundhati Roy, the Indian writer and activist, continues to view America as the source of many of the problems in the world. Like her, you were a critic of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. Which camp do you put yourself in now?

Rushdie: You can say that I'm the third point of the triangle. I find myself sometimes agreeing with both of them and often disagreeing with both of them. Christopher's journey toward Wolfowitz is a lot further along than mine. And I don't think that I am yet convinced of the theory of the democratic domino effect. Even though we see these stirrings in those countries in the area, I think you could easily attribute those stirrings to things quite independent of American policy, which have to do with local history. The hatred of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon has existed for a long time, and at some point that was going to burst out. If you look at the consequences of the death of Arafat, it seems to me that what's happening in the Palestinian community right now has great echoes in Northern Ireland in the Catholic community. There comes a point when people get sick of that stuff, sick of violence and terrorism. Catholics in Northern Ireland simply grew to detest what the IRA was doing.

���� Of course American policy plays a role because it is so powerful. But many of the things that are happening there had local roots.

Reason: Nobody would quarrel with that, but the question is, can--and has--current U.S. foreign policy been a catalyst for positive change?

Rushdie: I think that's an open question. The next decade will tell us the answer.

Reason: So do you or don't you part company with critics of American power, like Roy?

Rushdie: I admire a lot of Arundhati's activism and have written in support of her efforts to stop some of the big dam projects in India. She is an old-style leftist of the sort that there still are in India, and many of them are my friends. But I don't see the world the way they do, with America as the bogeyman.

���� I wrote Shame [1983] when there were still two superpowers. One of the ideas of that novel was that it is very easy to blame the superpowers for the problems of, say, India and Pakistan. The premise was, let's just assume that our problems are of our own making and then exacerbated by this or that superpower. At that point you get back responsibility for your own life. It puts the tools back in our own hands. It's kind of infantilizing to say that everything comes from the outside.

Reason: When I was growing up in India, every communal riot, every instance of government corruption, every thing that went wrong was blamed by politicians on the "CIA Hand."

Rushdie: Everything. Everything was the Hidden Hand. The Pynchonesque conspiracy running the world.

Reason: Your book Step Across This Line is a celebration of migration, commingling, adaptation, hybridization, cultural mongrelization. But even the most thorough cultural mongrel clings to something of his origins. What part of your Indianness do you cling to?

Rushdie: Not a small part. It's a very, very important thing for me. As I wrote somewhere in that book, one of the greatest hardships of those years of the fatwa was my separation from India. A decade. It was amazing to me that there was a 10-year period in my life when I couldn't go back.

Reason: One of the most poignant essays in your book was when you return to India and reclaim your ancestral home in Solan, which had been confiscated in your absence by the state government.

Rushdie: It was a very emotional moment, especially because I took my son with me, and that piece reflects that. Anyway, since then I have been going back a lot and making up for lost time. It feeds me like nothing else. It always has.

Reason: What aspect of India does that?

Rushdie: You know, I don't think theoretically like that. I just go there, and it has a big effect on me. It gives me stories to tell.