Commentary | WORDE

After Osama bin Laden’s Death, Time for a New Poster Child for Islam

May 3, 2011 | By Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi and Specialist Mehreen Farooq
Osama bin Laden, 54, unofficial poster-child for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and radical Islamist movements around the world died Sunday May 1, 2011. He will be remembered as a leader of anti-Americanism, a formidable mastermind of terrorist plots, and an unmistakable symbol of intolerance, hatred, and violence. From a young age, he dedicated his life to tarnishing the image of peaceful, law-abiding Muslims across the world and promoting radical, anti-social interpretations of Islam. He lived by the sword and died by the sword.

Filed Under: Countering Violent Extremism

Rep. Peter King’s Muslim Hearings: A Key Moment in an Angry Conversation

March 10, 2011 | By Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi
It won’t be on the official agenda. It might not even be asked out loud. But it may be the most important question during a congressional hearing Thursday on homegrown Islamic terrorists.
How should America talk about Muslim Americans?
Even in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, public discussions of Islamic extremists were usually accompanied by a careful disclaimer that a peaceful religion had been hijacked.

Filed Under: Countering Violent Extremism

Islamic Extremism: A Viable Threat to U.S. National Security

January 7, 1999 | Presentation by Specialist Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
US Department of State
Excerpt: What is the definition of extremism? We can see in all of history: even when the first settlers came to the United States they were from different countries; Spain, England, France, European Countries. They were fighting on this land and fighting with the Indians. Do we call this extremism? A fight for a better living, which you understand you are doing not for a religious motive, is not extremism. Extremism in Islam, or in religion, is when you use religion to label intolerance, to turn from religion and take ideas that you can extract for yourself, or deduce for yourself, and use to make a militant movement and disturb the peace in your country or around the world. That is called “extremism,” and “Islamic Extremism.” But a movement for better living, that is not extremism.

Filed Under: Commentary

Practical Sufism

By Specialist Vincent Cornell
Among the criticisms leveled at the Sufi tradition by its modern Muslim opponents, two stand out as most prominent. The first is that Sufism does not represent authentic Islam. This is allegedly because its teachings do not come directly from the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, and the first generations of Muslims (al-Salaf al-Salih). According to this “Salafi” argument, Sufism is a Trojan horse for unwarranted innovations that owe their origins to non-Muslim civilizations such as Greece, Persia, and India. The Salafi polemic began early in the history of Sufism, and is often associated with the anti-Sufi arguments of Hanbali scholars, such as Ibn al-Jawzi (d.1201) in Talbis Iblis or Ibn Taymiyya (d.1328) in his critiques of Ibn ‘Arabi.[1]

Filed Under: Commentary

America’s Challenges in the Middle East

September 23, 2008 | Harvard University Symposium Remarks By Specialist Hillel Fradkin
One may say that American interests in the Middle East remain the same, only more so. For some time we have had a primary interest—and primary responsibility—for the security and stability of the region of the Persian Gulf. A more recent primary interest is protecting ourselves from terrorism rooted in this region. We have other interests as well, such as preventing the region from going nuclear. But this is subordinate to and derivative from these two primary concerns. (A third interest is more general and does not apply exclusively to the Greater Middle East: the maintenance of our credibility.)

Filed Under: Global Security

The Dignity of Man: An Islamic Perspective

June 1, 2002 | By Specialist Hashim Kamali
M H Kamali sets out the proclamations on human dignity found in the Quran and then discusses topics pertaining to or resulting from human dignity: the physical and spiritual nobility of man; God’s love for humanity; the sanctity of life; and the necessity for freedom, equality and accountability. Finally, the author examines the measures that the Shariah has taken to protect human dignity and to promote it in social interaction.

Filed Under: Religious Sciences

Marketization and Democracy: East Asian Experiences

1999 | By Specialist Samantha Ravich
As the East Asian financial crisis continues to leave a path of destruction economically and politically in its wake, people all over the world seek to know what went wrong. Many blame the illiberal markets of the countries involved, and many blame their political leadership. This book explores how strong, open, liberalized markets create a counterbalance to crony capitalism and corruption and form the basis for a foundation of political liberalization. Using both a quantitative model and qualitative country studies, this work analyzes the experiences of China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Korea in moving toward both marketization and democracy.

Filed Under: Global Security

Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military

July 2005 | By Specialist Husain Haqqani
This book analyzes the origins of the relationships between Islamist groups and Pakistan’s military, and explores the nation’s quest for identity and security. Tracing how the military has sought U.S. support by making itself useful for concerns of the moment–while continuing to strengthen the mosque-military alliance within Pakistan–Haqqani offers an alternative view of political developments since the country’s independence in 1947.

Filed Under: Empowering ASJ and Sufi Muslim Networks

Islamist Parties: Going Back to the Origins

July 2008 | By Specialists Husain Haqqani and Hillel Fradkin
Excerpt: The Brotherhood and its offshoots, however, took a further step by insisting that the state take the lead in applying shari‘a, thereby making the political act of establishing an Islamic state central to their ideology. The call for an Islamic state was the crucial ingredient that al-Banna and the Brotherhood added to beliefs—in the lost purity of Islam and the need for laws based on shari‘a—that had already won the endorsement of such older movements as the Wahhabis of the Arabian Peninsula, the Deobandis of India, and the Salafis of Egypt.

Filed Under: Countering Violent Extremism

Preventing Radicalism

June 2010 | By Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi
Like most Muslims across America, I watched the news of the Ft Hood tragedy, holding my breath and praying that the crazed gunman was not a Muslim. As the days passed, we learned Major Malik Hasan was not only a Muslim; but that his actions were motivated in large part by a deviant, manipulated interpretation of Islamic law. The case of Malik Hasan and the slew of other “homegrown terrorists” take us to the larger crisis of confronting Islamist radicalism in our communities.

Filed Under: Countering Violent Extremism