Excellent article. Thanks, Martin.
As far as the argument about moderate Muslims, just look at Turkey: 1.5 million people rallying against Islamocraziness. I am sure most of them are Muslims. MEMRI shows perverted idiots. I don’t blame MEMRI: it’s their job, and they are doing it well. But viewers must understand: however many idiots there are, even if they are a majority, there are non-idiots too. Here is a short list I’ve compiled:
Sala Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. Bangladeshi journalist for English-language newspaper “Blitz”. A Zionist, a defender of Israel and a devout, practicing Muslim. Advocates establishing ties with Israel. Arrested in Nov. 2003 by security personnel at Zia International Airport in Dhaka as he was about to fly to Tel Aviv to participate in a cultural conference with the Hebrew Writers Association and deliver a speech. Spent 17 months in jail. Meanwhile his office was raided, his computers and files seized by police, his home looted by mobs and his family threatened and physically assaulted for being “allied with Zionists.” Charged with sedition in Feb. 2004. Released on bail in April 2005. In Aug. 2006 unknown assailants set off explosives outside the newspaper’s offices and planted a bomb in the press room that failed to detonate. On Oct. 5, 2006 was severely beaten by 40 people. No arrests were made, and police refused to allow Choudhury to file charges against his attackers. Charged with blasphemy, sedition, treason and espionage, punishable by death in Bangladesh. Richard L. Benkin said, “If the Choudhurys were in Europe during the Holocaust, they would have refused to drive the trains.”
“Israel is the land blessed by God. But, finally, God’s power has saved me from the dark. I am proud to be a son of Israel. Now my eyes are really thirsty to have a look into the land of Israel, inshallah.”
“As a journalist, I counteracted the biased ‘news’ that promoted hatred of Israel and Jews, condemned terrorism, promoted the free exchange of ideas and urged Bangladesh to recognize Israel.”
“When my own people abandoned me, my Jewish brother defended me, stood with me”
Imam Shaheed Satardien. Imam in a tiny mosque in Dublin, Ireland. Born in South Africa. Former anti-apartheid activist. Fled after his younger brother was shot dead in 1998 following a row with Islamic radicals and he was told he would be next. Was cast out by the majority Islamic community in Dublin for his outspokenness
Takes a stand against the cult of the suicide bomber, warning his multinational congregation against blaming other religions and the West in general for all Muslims’ ills. Said that the main Dublin mosque at Clonskeagh is under the influence of Yusuf al-Qaradawi
“I am standing firm in my beliefs. The truth is more important than being popular or living a quiet life. Extremism has infected Islam in Ireland. It’s time to get back to the spiritual aspect of my religion and stop it being used as a political weapon”
“Young, impressionable Muslims in Ireland are being raised to think that suicide bombers are cool. .. What I am trying to do is convince the young people that such practices are un-Islamic”
Raymond Ibrahim. Born in Egypt. Language Specialty Assistant at the Library of Congress’s Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division. Author of “The Al Qaeda Reader.” Author of article “Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered: What they capture, they keep. When they lose, they complain to the U.N.”
Bassam Tibi. Political scientist. Born in Syria. Lives in Germany. Moderate Moslem. In an interview with Der Spiegel urged European Muslims to integrate. Said that to become Europeans, Muslims must renounce jihad, give up shariah and accept pluralism and tolerance. When asked how many Muslims out of 3 million in Germany would agree to these demands, he replied: “A few thousands perhaps”
Mithal al-Alusi. Prominent Iraqi official who favors establishing diplomatic ties with Israel. Visited Israel. After that was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress. A specially convened court even charged him with a criminal offense for that visit. On Feb. 7, 2005 his two sons Ayman and Jamal were gunned down during an attempt to kill him. Other attempts have been made on his life, and he now says that members of the new Iraqi government are connected to those attempts
Salim Mansur. Professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario and senior fellow with Canadian Coalition for Democracies. Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C. Member of the Academic Council of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. Dr. Recently received the American Jewish Congress’s Stephen S. Wise Profiles in Courage award along with Salman Rushdie, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan and Tashbih Sayyid
M. Zuhdi Jasser. Director of American Islamic Forum for Democracy. (www.aifdemocracy.org): a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state. Has offered to pay for the legal defense of any “John Doe” passengers who end up being sued by six imams who were removed from a plane in Minneapolis for suspicious behavior
Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi. Co-chairman of the Root and Branch Association: Islam-Israel Fellowship. Secretary General of the Italian Muslim Assosiation. Former Imam of Rome
Ishmael Khaldi (www.ishmaelkhaldi.com). Bedouin Israeli Muslim. Served with the Israeli border police and worked for the Ministry of Defense. He is now training with the Israeli foreign service to serve as Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat. Member of Arabs for Israel
Tashbih Sayyed. Member of Arabs for Israel. Editor-in-chief of Pakistan Today, a California-based weekly newspaper. President of Council for Democracy and Tolerance. Adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute
From “Disposable Children”: “This latest Palestinian attempts to kill and maim Israelis was another example of their cynical use of innocent children. It seems that for the radical Islamists, children are no more than a disposable commodity. That’s why it is so easy for them to turn the children into human time bombs”
Tawfik Hamid. (www.thamid.com). Author of “muslimsforhumanrights.org” website. Author of “The Roots of Jihad”. Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family. Joined Gama’a Islamiya when he was in Medical School . Used to pray with Al Zawahiri. Eventually questioned his reasons for terrorist participation. When he began to preach in Mosques to promote a message of peace instead of violence and hatred, he became a target of his former friends. They threatened his life, forcing him and his family to flee Egypt, and then Saudi Arabia. Sees his mission as “to speak out against radical Islam, a cancer that is spreading with frightening rapidity across the globe today.” Testified at the first major Intelligence Summit in Washington
From “It is time to admit it” (Dec. 2005): “After the barbaric terrorist attacks done by the hands of my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and after the too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible as a Muslim and as a human being, to speak out and tell the truth to protect the world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations. [...] We ask others to respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly (in Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the Mosques. What message do we convey to our children when we call the Jews ‘Descendants of the pigs and monkeys’? Is this a message of love and peace, or a message of hate? I have been into churches and synagogues where they were praying for Muslims. While all the time we curse them, and teach our generations to call them infidels, and to hate them. [...] I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror attacks. Muslims denounce these attacks to look good in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic terrorists and sympathise with their cause.”
Abdel Razek Kader. Algerian writer. Lives in exile. Has boldly championed Israel’s cause. Author of an article, “Real Enemy of the Palestinian People” in the Jerusalem Post, January 8, 1969
Irshad Manji. (www.muslim-refusenik.com). Born in Uganda in a Muslim family. Emmigrated to Canada when 2 years old. Journalist, television personality, and writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto. Author of “The Trouble With Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith” Recently visited Israel
Mohammad al-Harbi. Secondary-school teacher in Saudi Arabia. Discussed the Bible and praised Jews. For that he was charged with promoting a “dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer.” Sentenced to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes
Taslima Nasreen. Born and grew up in Bangladesh. Writer, poet, and doctor. Author of Laffa [Shame] (1992). The book touched off deadly riots in Bangladesh and triggered a Muslim death sentence on her head. Awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1994. Now in hiding in Sweden. She returned to see her dying mother in 1998, but was soon forced to flee once more. In September 2002, a court in Bangladesh found her guilty in absentia of offending Muslims and sentenced her to a year in prison
Khaleel Mohammad. Imam and assistant professor of religious studies at San Diego State University. Studied classical Islamic theology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Master’s degree in Judaism and Islam in Canada. Doctorate in Islamic law at McGill University in Montreal. Spoke at UC Santa Cruz, discussed the religious roots of Islamist Jew-hatred
Tashbih Sayyid. Journalist. Editor of “Pakistan today” and “Moslem World Today”. President of the Council for Tolerance
From an interview with Israel National Radio’s Tovia Singer: “I had a chance to be liberated from the collective clerical hold that keeps the Moslem world in the darkest corner of the intellectual mind. My faith rests in the premise that as long as there is anti-Semitism in this world, the world will never be able to see peace. People don’t recognize that whatever trouble the world is confronted with today is because of anti-Semitism. People hide anti-Semitism under different guises or title. Some call it anti-Zionism, some call it anti-Americanism, some say we are leftists, liberals, Moslems…but the crux of the matter is that they are anti-Semites. Anti-Semitism is a disease, an affliction that has troubled the mind of this world for the last 2,500 years… As a Moslem, I am concerned for the welfare of my community for the future of my children. I do not want Moslems to continue living in the bottomless epic of darkness and evil. … Israel, after coming into existence in 1948, has been something that refuses to submit to evil and darkness… If Israel is not secured, then the world will not be secure”
Khalid Duran. Writer and Muslim-American scholar. Lives in the U.S. Spoke out against radical Islam and its support for terrorist groups. Translator and senior adviser for the 1994 documentary “Jihad in America.” Together with Abdelwahab Hechiche wrote “Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews” — a children’s book promoting understanding of Islam — and enlisted the American Jewish Committee to publish it. That earned him a death fatwah from Lebanese Muslim cleric, Abd al-Mun’im Abu Zant and numerous death threats
Abdelwahab Hechiche. Together with Khalid Duran wrote “Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews”
Riad Nachef. Head of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects. (Started in Lebanon, now active in the US. Two of its leaders were murdered by radical opponents in recent years.)
“Swindlers” is how Mr. Nachef describes Mr. Al-Marayati and the other heads of radical organizations.
When Mr. Nachef’s name came up just as the National Commission on Terrorism was first proposed by Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, it elicited intensely hostile responses from radical organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Suher Hamdan (Zohair Hamdan, Zuhair Hamdan).
Muktar (leader) of Arab village / Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Bahir. Protested transfer of Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods to Palestinian Authority control. Said he would prefer to remain under Israeli sovereignty rather than Arafat’s. Launched a petition campaign, collecting more than 10,000 signatures of Jerusalem Arabs opposing Arafat’s rule. Immediately after the petition drive was completed, Hamdan’s name was placed on the PA’s wanted list. Hamdan was declared an enemy on Hezbollah television. His effigy was placed on an electric pole by Marwan Barghouti. Visited Israelis wounded in terrorist attacks and condemned violence on both sides. Led a delegation of Jerusalem muktars to Gilo to condemn the shooting in that Jewish neighborhood. Visited a 12-year-old Jewish boy wounded in a shooting attack in a Jerusalem suburb. Was shot at and wounded by attempted assassins, most probably from Fatah, in the courtyard of his home, on Oct. 5, 2001. Was shot outside his corner shop near Bethlehem in Nov. 2001 by a member of PLO Bethlehem gang. Survived
“I knew the risks, I took them into account, but I knew I was doing the right thing.”
“Any little boy can see through Arafat’s failed leadership. It is in Arafat’s interest that the bloodshed continue, for without violence and bloodshed, he cannot survive. He has done nothing but bring bloodshed and death to his people. The Palestinians have had enough of him, but they are just afraid”
Khaled Mahameed. Israeli Arab. Opened the first Holocaust museum geared to an Arab audience in Nazareth to educate fellow Arabs about the World War II Holocaust.
“My goal is to teach how the Holocaust influences Jewish and Arab policies and contribute to (future) peace”
Kadra. Norwegian-Somalian. Exposed imam support of female circumcision in a 2000 hidden camera TV documentary revealing the positive attitude of Muslim leaders to female circumcision. In newspaper VG said that the Koran’s views on women needed to be reinterpreted. Beaten unconscious by seven or eight persons of Somali origin on April 12, 2007 in downtown Oslo. Had several broken ribs
Sulaiman al-Hattlan. Saudi. Columnist for the Al-Watan newspaper. Covered the war in Afghanistan in 1988-89. Lives in the U.S. since 1992. Said Arabs “lack the human face” when it comes to condemning terror attacks, including those against Israelis. He said those who denounce such bombings usually do so for political reasons – because they do not advance the attackers’ cause – and not for humanitarian reasons.
“You have to have a moral standard. You have to look at others as human.”
“Ironically, while millions of Iraqis at home and in exile celebrate their freedom, the broader Arab world is crying for the ‘dignity’ of Iraqis under the ‘US occupation’ ¬≠ as if it weren’t shameful enough that they had ignored the daily humiliation of Iraqis during 30 years of Saddam Hussein’s brutal occupation.”
“Saudi Arabia suffers from a homemade brand of fanaticism propagated by members of the conservative Wahhabi school of Islam. …Because of the dominance of Wahhabism, Saudi society has been exposed to only one school of thought, one that teaches hatred of Jews, Christians and certain Muslims, like Shiites and liberal and moderate Sunnis. But we Saudis must acknowledge that our real enemy is religious fanaticism.”
Every one of these people has had threats on their lives. I have also omitted a few who are not so public and therefore not protected.
I have personally encountered quite a few non-crazy Muslims: Iranians, Indonesians, Pakistanis, etc.
I am not naive. In addition to “Friends” file from which these names came, I also maintain a “Bad people” file – a much, much longer file.
But look at this list. Look how many heroes there are. I am not sure I would be as brave if I were in their circumstances.
Yes, Islam is currently very sick, its disease is like cancer. Still, one should blame the disease, not the patient.
