“On the far right,” says Salam al-Marayati, “Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney and others making baseless claims about the incompatibility of Islam and the West increasingly find an audience and place in U.S. politics.”
Islam as taught by its classic schools of jurisprudence teaches the death penalty for criticizing Islam and leaving Islam, the legal inequality of non-Muslims and women, the permissibility of beating disobedient women, etc. Compatible with the West? You be the judge.
My new book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS gives the lie to al-Marayati’s soothing falsehoods. It shows that Islam has been set against the West, and other non-Muslim areas of the world, since it began. Nor has it reformed or rejected the doctrines that gave rise to this endless warfare. So on what basis does al-Marayati claim that it is egregious to say that Islam is set against the West? He doesn’t want you to think that it is.
Click here to preorder The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.
Oh, and by the way: “far-right” is just an empty smear term, designed to make ill-informed people turn away from the person so labeled. It is not “far-right” to want to uphold and preserve the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law.
Much more below.
“How Anti-Muslim Animus Undermines Years of U.S. Law Enforcement Efforts to Build Relations,” by Salam Al-Marayati, Lawfare, July 2, 2018:
Even before the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration’s travel ban, trust in law enforcement was eroding—and reaching a nadir—among American Muslims. Many view this administration’s policies as a source of Islamophobia and generalized suspicion of American Muslims. This is a dangerous break with efforts since the aftermath of 9/11 to engage Muslims in the U.S., and it stands to undermine critical partnerships between Muslim communities and law enforcement.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, ordinary American Muslims and their leaders pushed back against the ideologies of al-Qaeda. American Muslim communities and law enforcement established powerful working relationships through dialogue and concerted efforts to build bridges.
Actually, the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) actively and repeatedly discouraged Muslims from cooperating with law enforcement.
Hurdles were encountered along the way, including cases involving anti-Muslim trainers at the FBI and New York Police Department surveillance of Muslims.
No one was really “anti-Muslim.” They were anti-jihad terror. Like many in the establishment media, al-Marayati smears as “anti-Muslim” those who oppose jihad mass murder and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others.
But both sides remained committed to engagement. And those efforts produced results: National security policy focused on terrorist cells immediately after 9/11, then narrowed to lone wolves. Today it focuses on Islamic State-inspired violence through social media instigation. The devolution of terrorist capability is a success—but while that scope has diminished, public fears have expanded from the threat of terrorist cells to risks posed by the mere existence of Muslims in the West.
Cynical rhetorical attacks and the tendency to view American Muslims as suspects rather than potential partners will lead to increased discrimination and, inevitably, exclusion from civic life. The United States is mimicking the ghettoization of Muslim communities in Europe.
In reality, Islamic leaders in Europe have discouraged their people from assimilating. “Assimilation is cultural rape,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Muslim leader in Belgium.
Forces of Fragmentation
On a fundamental level, the ways that law enforcement agencies and officials of both parties thought about and viewed Muslims and Islam in recent years was key to enhancing national security policy. Those security advances and civil rights successes are being undermined by short-sighted or cynical forces at the extremes of the U.S. political system.
On the far right, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Frank Gaffney and others making baseless claims about the incompatibility of Islam and the West increasingly find an audience and place in U.S. politics. Their misrepresentations of American Muslims as threats to the United States or as agents of radical foreign organizations show a lack of understanding or willful mischaracterization of American Muslims by and large. It also illustrates their lack of respect for equality under U.S. law. They aim to exclude American Muslims from civic life and political engagement, or possibly to ban Muslims from this country altogether.
Pure libel. He doesn’t quote us to support these claims, because he can’t, because they’re lies.
Embraced by the Trump administration, these extreme voices have been amplified abroad as well. Notably, the spike in anti-Muslim sentiments in the U.S. mirrors rising anti-Americanism in majority-Muslim countries. Islam vs. the West is the lie that keeps on giving, and its gifts include war, terrorism, radicalization, psychological ghettoization and hate….
Note that he attributes “radicalization” to non-Muslims saying that Islam is set against the West. So don’t say Muslims are waging jihad against the West, or else Muslims will wage jihad against the West. Got it?