Radical Islam’s Campaign To Defeat George W. Bush Is A War Against Islam
Bush’s victory is the victory of Islam.
By: Tashbih Sayyed, Ph.D
Nothing is more difficult, and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in open opposition to one’s time (and those one loves) and to say loudly: No! – Kurt Tucholsky, Germany, 1934
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” - George Orwell
When the radical Islamists perpetrated their terror in Madrid, Spain, they had a clear objective. They wanted to scare the world into believing that not only they can kill innocent civilians, disrupt peaceful way of life and destabilize communities but can also undo thousands of years of human endeavor that has gone into the establishment of democratic institutions by intimidating the citizens of open societies to caste their vote not according to their conscience but only to appease the will of a Fascist state of mind. They succeeded - a government which was committed to fight radical Islam was voted out of the office.
Emboldened by their success, radical Islam is now trying to do the same in the US. Not only the threat of terrorist attack is being used to influence the outcome of the US elections but for the first time in the US history, our election process is also being exploited to advance anti-American agenda. The same forces that could not bring them to condemn those who attacked us on September 11, 2001, now spearhead a campaign to convince American Muslims that George W. Bush is a wrong choice for Islam.
Radical Islam cannot forgive George W. Bush first, for launching this war on terror and then being so resolute. They knew that the only way they can enlist the support of a majority of Muslims in their cause is to convince them that this war on terror is in realty a war against Islam. And they did exactly that. Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohammad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, who is famous for his anti-Semitic faith and anti-Americanism exhorted Muslims, “I need not tell you more about the atrocities committed against the Muslims and Islam. But I would like to appeal to you, the Muslim citizens and voters of America, to be united and to cast your votes against Bush, in the name of justice, in the name of Islam.”
Mahathir reminded American Muslims, “You may not be numerous enough but in marginal constituencies you can make a difference. It is your bounden duty to send a message to candidates that they must be fair to all the communities in the United States if they wish to rule the country. Even if you fail to unseat Bush, you can at least reduce his majority. But Inshaallah, Bush will lose and Kerry will realize that his victory is partly due to you. Inshaallah, President Kerry will remember the Muslims in America when he rules the United States of America.”
Then Mahathir, in the true traditions of radical Islamists tried to misguide Muslims by saying that defeating Bush is like worshiping God, “Dear Brothers and Sisters. Vote Bush out of office. It is truly an ibadah (Worship) that you perform.”
Leaders claiming to represent Muslim causes want American Muslims to believe that discrimination against Muslims is on the rise and George W. Bush is responsible for it. The organizations they have set up to intimidate American values have launched a scientific and organized campaign to vilify Bush administration. They have presented every aspect of the war on terror as a deliberate plot against Muslims.
In order to turn American Muslims against Bush administration, radical Islamist leaders have “documented hundreds of unsubstantiated claims of discrimination and harassment suffered by Muslims, grouping together the truly heinous with the outright ridiculous, and placing all of the blame on the Federal Government.”
How far radical Islamists will succeed will depend on the conscience of American Muslims. It is now up to the American Muslims to determine if they want to follow those who represent HAMAS, Hezbollah, Martyrs Brigade or those who wants to liberate Muslims from a perennial hold of murderous religious extremism. American Muslims will have to make up their minds, once and for all, to prove to the world if they are part of a fifth column that is determined to undo American freedoms or are true Americans who want to defeat terrorism. They have to prove those wrong who are compelled to think that the American Muslims are led by those who act as a front for Al-Qaeda. They have to start challenging those who blame the US foreign policy for the failures of the Muslim world; it is the religious extremism and historical anti-Semitism that has prevented the Muslims from progressing. Elction-04 is offering a historical opportunity to the American Muslims to rehabilitate themselves as a people who do not allow anti-Americans to hijack their community and reinstate Islam as a noble faith.
I am encouraged to see that more and more Muslims are becoming aware of the reasons why radical Islam does not want George W. Bush to win; he is one man who is going to succeed in decimating the scourge of radical Islam – he has the final solution to Islamist terrorism. The statement of Nawab Agha, President, American Muslim Congress is a sign of growing American Muslim concern about radical Islamist agenda and the way they are using US elections to achieve it. He said, “Recently, various Islamic organizations have endorsed John Kerry, basing their opposition of President Bush solely on the war in Iraq. These organizations do an immeasurable disservice to all Muslims in this country when they exhort Muslims to vote not for Senator Kerry, but actually against President Bush. Regardless of whether or not a Muslim supports the war in Iraq, he or she should look at the candidates in totality: there are a host of other matters that need to be considered before someone casts a vote. Furthermore, just as the general public is evenly divided between the two candidates, so too is the Muslim community.”
American Muslims must not forget that it is the American values that allowed them to prosper and progress when they could not live in their respective “Muslim” countries. The American Muslims must always remember that the mind-set that claims to be their leaders in the US is the same state of mind that has transformed their “Muslim” countries into a living hell. History will not forgive American Muslims if they will continue to allow individuals and groups to represent them, knowing fully well that they are the fronts for anti-American and terrorist state of mind. They have set up their business in the US to abuse American freedoms to undermine our democracy.
Nawab Agha of American Muslim Congress believes that radical Islamism, by hijacking the leadership of American Muslims have damaged the reputation of Islam. He wants to emphasize that the Palestinian, Arab and Wahhabi groups claiming to represent American Muslims are misleading the American public opinion. He said, “In sharp contrast to the assertions made by a few Islamic organizations, the vast majority of Muslims do not see the war in Iraq as a war against Islam. It is disingenuous of these organizations to simplify the presidential election into one issue. This election should not be decided on religious grounds. Muslims are a diverse group of individuals, and to have any one organization claim that it speaks for the entire Muslim population in America is incorrect. If an Islamic organization truly wished to assist all Muslims, it would provide them with a total analysis of the candidates, and not attempt to make this election one of a war between religions.”
I have met many Muslims who say that so long as American Muslims will continue to allow radical Islam to control and guide their lives, their faith – Islam – will always be perceived as an evil faith. A faith is only as good or as evil as the sociology of its adherents. American Muslims must recognize the fact that when a non-Muslim says that Islam is evil, his statement is not based on his scholarship of Quran – the holy book of Islam - or studies of its noble principles. His conclusion reflects his day to day experiences and observations of Muslim societies – the Muslim countries where Wahhabis, Salafis, Deobandis and other extremists are murdering, Shias, Christians, Jews and Hindus in the name of Islam.
Most of the individuals and organizations who have established themselves as the leaders and spokespersons of American Muslims, according to many observers, do not have the Muslim interests close to their hearts. Knowing that in democracy, numbers matter, they are only interested in using the Muslim numbers to influence American policies in the Middle East. In order to appear influential and powerful and to impress the US establishment, they need to appear to have the backing of the American Muslims. That’s why, as a well planned strategy, with the help of Saudi Petro-Dollars and other radical Islamist money, they took over most of the Islamic centers and mosques. Control over most of the Islamic centers allowed them to present themselves as the leaders of American Muslims. Many including the US establishment fell in this trap. And now they are in a position to push American Muslims in any direction they want.
Election -04 must be used by American Muslims to call radical Islam’s bluff by voting for George W. Bush openly and in great numbers. Bush’s victory is the victory of Islam.
(The writer is editor-in-chief of Muslim World Today, a California-based weekly newspaper, president of Council for Democracy and Tolerance and adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute.) |
