OUR WORDE: THE INFORMATIVE BULLETIN
WORDE produces an informative bulletin called OUR WORDE that features updates on the public policy initiatives and events its Specialists participated in as well as some of the grassroots programming that occurred.
FEATURED COMMENTARY
The Global Act of Terrorism
By Hedieh Mirahmadi
As facts unfold in the Times Square incident, we quickly learn that terrorism training and execution has no geographical boundaries. Terror suspect Faisal Shahzad oscillated back and forth between the US and his native Pakistan for educational advancement, marital bonds, and bomb making skills, until he finally used his training to launch a foiled terror attack in New York City. Since the realities on the ground in the tribal regions of Pakistan directly impact US national security, we need to employ every possible tool to ensure their counterinsurgency operation is successful. As of yet, both the US and Pakistan are underutilizing a valuable resource in that effort.
The international community needs to form a strategic alliance with the traditional Muslim community as a bulwark to the terrorists. Specifically, it is the network of traditional mainstream Muslims known as the ASJ [an acronym for Ahl as-Sunnah wa'l-Jamā'ah] who are amongst the most respected community leaders, clerics and activists. They wield considerable influence, even in the troubled frontier, which is otherwise inaccessible to outsiders. For decades, the ASJ have been primary providers of social services and education throughout the country and are a vital resource for mobilizing the population at the grassroots level.
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EBOOK: ISLAM AND CIVIL SOCIETY
 Today is a crucial turning point for Islam and Muslims: in its relations with the non-Muslim world; with one another, and in its responsibility as one of the world’s great religions. If as a culture and civilization, united purely by faith, Muslims fail to come forward with an approach that puts responsibility for its destiny squarely on its own shoulders, they cannot expect a bright future. For too long, as a religious community, Muslims have sought the path of blame and failed to undertake the hard work of self-critique, analysis and adjustment. It is for such purposes this conference was convened.
As the follow-on to the International Conference of Islamic Scholars that took place in February 2004, this gathering of distinguished scholars and politicians deliberated issues of the gravest concern to the Muslim community and to the world at large. In doing so, they sought an opening by which to initiate the process of critical self examination, and yes, self- purification, without which the Muslim world will undoubtedly fall further into self-doubt, disintegration and alarm before the bewildering array of social, political, and spiritual changes taking place in the world today.
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* Edited by Hedieh Mirahmadi, Islam and Civil Society, is a compilation of some of the speeches given at the International Conference of Islamic Scholars (Jakarta, Indonesia).
Special Order: Who is CAIR?
Hon. Frank R. Wolf
MADAM SPEAKER: As ranking member on the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, which last week considered the FY 2010 appropriations bill, I have a keen interest in and oversight responsibility for a host of counterterrorism-related initiatives.
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WORDE Specialist, Dr. Nazeer Ahmed
SEEEC and Thou Shall Find
Dr. Nazeer Ahmed
The question is often asked what Muslims need to do to regain their civilizational initiative. In seeking answers to this question, one must at the outset make a distinction between Islam and Muslims. Islam is alive and well. It is the most dynamic, fastest growing faith in the world.
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WORDE Specialist, Hedieh Mirahmadi
The Cedar Revolution in Ferment
By Hedieh Mirahmadi
There are virtually no grassroots institutions here that could effectively shape the political message, encourage public-speaking engagements about democracy, and conduct interviews for the local and international press on the current political climate.
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Sunni Disposition: These moderates should be our friends.
By Hedieh Mirahmadi
Sheikh Afeef Abdul Qadir Gailani is one of Iraq's leading Sunni clerics, a moderate leader who could have done much to help the United States-led Coalition restore order and peace in his homeland. I say he could have, because he was forced to flee Iraq and is currently living in self-imposed exile in Kuala Lumpur. I recently met with him there and believe that his story partly explains the chaos in Fallujah today.
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Jihadi Tomb Raiders: They’re not Islam.
By Hedieh Mirahmadi
Under the false pretenses of implementing "Islamic" law, Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamist group of the Salafi/Wahhabi strain, recently moved into the rugged mountains of northern Iraq and has taken control of the region. These jihadists have forcefully imposed their harsh Wahhabi version of Islamic law on villages in the Hawraman Mountain region, along the border with Iran. As part of this campaign, Ansar al-Islam vandalized the graves of classical Islamic scholars who are revered throughout the region as spiritual guides who promoted traditional Islam and Islamic mysticism.
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A Lebanon Freedom Foundation
By Hedieh Mirahmadi
New York Sun | Monday, March 21, 2005
After years of working with totalitarian, centralized states in the Middle East, America must radically rethink its assistance in the region and must be far more innovative in its approach to public diplomacy if democracy is to be spread without constant military intervention. By exposing the Arab world to the ideals of a self-governing society - expressed in a way that is compatible with, but not identical to, Western ideals - we can further decrease the anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism that remain so prevalent in the Muslim world today.
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WORDE Specialist, Zeyno Baran
O Brotherhood, What Art Thou?
Don't mistake Islamic extremists for moderates.
By Zeyno Baran
Even though Congress was in recess the first week of April, a number of lawmakers kept busy. A bipartisan delegation led by House majority leader Steny Hoyer paid a visit to Cairo, meeting with several Egyptian members of parliament, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a controversial Islamist group officially banned in Egypt. Hoyer's contacts with the Brotherhood have added new intensity to the debate over whether or not the U.S. government should "engage" with the group as an ally in the war on terror.
Making the case for such engagement, Robert Leiken and Steven Brooke wrote an article in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairsentitled "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood." They conclude that the Brotherhood consists of "moderate Muslims with active community support" and that engaging with its members "makes strong strategic sense."
Yet this could not be further from the truth.
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Fighting the War of Ideas
By Zeyno Baran
Summary: While radical Islamist terrorist groups such as al Qaeda grab the headlines, their nonviolent ideological cousins remain little known. But groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir play a crucial role in indoctrinating Muslims with radical ideology. Because they occupy a gray zone of militancy, regulating them is a diffcult challenge for liberal democracies -- but ignoring them is no longer an option.
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House Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East & Centeral Asia
By Zeyno Baran
On September 10, 2001, most Americans knew little about events in Central Asia, and even less about Uzbekistan. Shortly after the al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush was on the phone with President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, asking him for permission to use the Karshi-Khanabad base to launch Operation Enduring Freedom. Bordering Afghanistan, Uzbekistan was strategically located from which to launch the attacks. Despite initial opposition from Russia, Karimov quickly gave his permission, and became the first post-Soviet leader to help the U.S. successfully conclude the counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.
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The Road from Tashkent to the Taliban -
An Islamist terror group is undermining a U.S. Ally.
By Zeyno Baran
Uzbekistan, a predominantly Muslim U.S. ally bordering Afghanistan, has been shaken by terrorist attacks this week. Hosting a U.S. military base in Khanabad, supporting U.S actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and insisting on a secular regime while repressing political dissent, this former Soviet republic has for years been a prime target for the spread of radical Islamist ideology and its terrorist adherents.
The developments in Uzbekistan have important implications for the next stage of the war on terror. First, two female suicide bombers were involved; the use of women signals the spreading influence of radical Islamism with roots in the Middle East. We can expect more female terrorists and suicide bombings globally.
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Understanding Sufism and its Potential Role in U.S. Policy
By Zeyno Baran
On October 24, 2003, the International Security Program of The Nixon Center hosted a conference in Washington to explore the role how Sufism—the spiritual tradition within Islam—relates to US foreign policy goals. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce US policymakers and the policy community to this rather neglected part of Islam, often referred to as “Cultural Islam.” Sufism is practiced by millions of people around the world, including in the United States.
The meeting focused primarily on Eurasia and its largest Sufi order—the Naqshbandi Order—as well as on Turkish Sufi traditions. At the first session speakers outlined the theology, organizational structure, and societal role of Sufism as a whole, while the second panel discussed the religious, social, and political impact of various Sufi orders active in the Caucasus and in Central Asia. The third and final panel discussed US government programs vis-à-vis the Muslim world. While the questions were framed for the Eurasian countries, the policy implications are applicable elsewhere.
The highlight of the conference was a keynote discussion featuring Professor Bernard Lewis and Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani. Lewis is the renowned author of several dozen books, including What Went Wrong: the Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East and The Crisis in Islam. He has also advised policymakers at all levels of the US government on ways to constructively engage Muslims. Shaykh Kabbani is the deputy leader of the Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi Order, which has over 2 million adherents around the world. He was the first Muslim leader to warn the United States about the imminent threat posed by Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network; he also led the Muslim world in immediately condemning the attacks of September 11th. Shaykh Kabbani is a tireless promoter of moderate, traditional Islam and a staunch opponent of radical Islamism. This report includes a full transcript of the on-the-record presentations and summarizes the key points of the rest of the conference.
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WORDE Specialist, Prof. Hashim Kamali
The Scope of Diversity and Ikhtilaf
By Prof. Hashim Kamali
With its tolerance of disagreement among the ulama over juristic issues, Islamic law is described as being one of diversity within unity – diversity in details and unity in principles. Ikhtilaf (juristic differences) in Islamic law is reflected in the existence of at least five different schools of jurisprudence surviving to this day. Islamic law has a rich tradition of diversity and disagreement even as it has remained open to the influence of various legal traditions.
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WORDE Specialist, Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl
"Battling Islamic Puritans,"
By Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl
The most incendiary Muslim in American academia knows a thing or two about Islamic fanatics. He says he used to be one as a seventh-grader in his native Kuwait. UCLA law professor Khaled Abou El Fadl remembers beating up other kids, condemning his parents as unbelievers and destroying his sister's Rod Stewart tape, "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?"
"I found it remarkably empowering to spew my hatred with the banner of God in my hand," he says. But challenged by his father to take up true religious scholarship, Abou El Fadl began a journey of Islamic learning that would transform him into a nemesis of the extremists he once endorsed. Today, at 38, he is a leading warrior in the intellectual struggle that exploded into America's consciousness Sept. 11: Who speaks for Islam? Who defines it?
With breathtaking bluntness, Abou El Fadl attacks Muslims who promote a strict, literalist trend in Islam, most prominently the creed of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.
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WORDE Specialist, Hillel Fradkin
The History and Unwritten Future of Salafism
By Hillel Fradkin
This conference is on a most important subject—the subject of the organization, or group of organizations, known as the Muslim Brotherhood. The importance of this subject partially derives from the importance of another related subject: the worldwide Islamic phenomenon and movement variously known as Islamism, Salafism, radical Islam, militant Islam, political Islam and the like. Since the events of 9/11, we have all learned that understanding this movement properly—broadly, deeply and accurately—is a very great necessity. It is a necessity if we are to understand the present-day world situation and crisis and if we are to devise sensible policies to address them.
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Going Back to the Origins
By Hillel Fradkin
How should we understand the emergence and the nature of Islamist parties? Can they reasonably be expected not just to participate in democratic politics but even to respect the norms of liberal democracy? These questions lie at the heart of the issues that we have been asked to address. In our view, any response that is historically and thus practically relevant must begin with the following observation: Until very recently, even the idea of an Islamist party (let alone a democratic Islamist party) would have seemed, from the perspective of Islamism itself, a paradox if not a contradiction in terms.
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WORDE Specialist, Husain Haqqani
Democracy in Pakistan Might Bring Tension With Washington
By Husain Haqqani
The decision by the opposition parties that won Pakistan's February 18 parliamentary election to work together offers the hope of bringing democratic stability to a dysfunctional nuclear state. The army has dominated Pakistan's politics for most of its 60-year existence as an independent country. In the past, coup-making generals, like President Pervez Musharraf, have taken advantage of differences among politicians instead of allowing politicians with popular support to negotiate compromises and run the country according to its constitution.
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Pakistan: Nuclear Power with Feet of Clay
By Husain Haqqani
Backed by nuclear weapons and the seventh largest standing army in the world, Pakistan has the ability to project its power externally, but lacks the strength of an effective state at home. The recently released video of the Taliban using a young boy, believed to be 12 years old, to behead a man amid cries of “Allahu Akbar” is only one of several troubling images emanating from Pakistan. Attacks by armed supporters of a pro-government militia on opposition activists in the port city of Karachi and frequent terrorist bombings revive fears about Pakistan’s future.
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WORDE Specialist, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
Its Wahhabi Roots and Current Representation
By Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
Traditional Islam views religion as a pact between man and God and therefore the domain of spirituality. In this belief, there can be no compulsion or force used in religion. From the time of the Prophet Muhammad (s), peace and tolerance were practiced between different religious groups, with respect to distinctions in belief. Contrary to this, the "Wahhabi" ideology is built on the concept of political enforcement of religious beliefs, thus permitting no differences in faith whatsoever. In "Wahhabi" belief, faith is not necessarily an option; it is sometimes mandated by force.
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