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Jewish World Review July 29, 2003 / 29 Tamuz, 5763 Improving Islam's Reputation By Daniel Pipes
Perhaps the most dramatic change over time has been the jump in Americans who find that Islam, more than other religions, is likely ‘to encourage violence among its believers.’ In March 2002, 25 percent of the sample advocated this view. Now 44 percent do.
(Technical aside: Conducted during the period June 24-July 8, 2003, replies in the Pew study titled "Religion and Politics: Contention and Consensus" have a 95 percent confidence level and accuracies of +/- 2.5 percent or +/- 3.5 percent.) Other trends concerning Islam are also negative.
What explains this increasingly worried attitude? Clearly, much of it results from the on-going reality of terrorism, hate-filled statements, and other problems connected with militant Islam around the globe. But some of it also results from the problems concerning militant Islam's control of the institutions of American Muslim life. Whether it be the imam at the local mosque, the principal of the Islamic school, the Muslim chaplain in a prison or the armed forces, the editor of an Islamic publishing house, or the spokesman for a national organization, the American scene presents an almost uniform picture of apologetics for terrorism, conspiracy theories about Jews, and demands for Muslim privilege. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, with seventeen offices across North America, has emerged as the powerhouse of Muslim organizations and best exemplifies this problem. Consider the sentiments of its leadership:
Not does CAIR just excuse violence. Two of its former employees, Bassem Khafagi and Ismail Royer, have recently been arrested on charges related to terrorism. And a member of CAIR's advisory board, Siraj Wahhaj, was named by the U.S. attorney as one of the "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators" in an attempted terrorist assault. Despite this ugly record, the U.S. government widely accepts CAIR as representing Islam. Nationally, the White House invites it to functions, the State Department links to its webpage, and Democratic senators rely on its research. In New York City, the mayor appoints its general counsel to the Human Rights Commission and the police department hosts its "sensitivity training" seminar. In Florida, public schools invite it to teach "diversity awareness." The national media broadcasts its views. Which Muslim, for example, did the Los Angeles Times quote responding to the Pew report? Why, Ibrahim Hooper, of course. CAIR, in brief, has established itself as the voice of American Islam, thereby battering Islam's noble reputation among Americans. Moderate Muslims, of course, reject CAIR's representing them. The late Seifeldin Ashmawy, publisher of the New Jersey-based Voice of Peace, dismissed CAIR the champion of "extremists whose views do not represent Islam." Tashbih Sayyed of the Los Angeles-based Council for Democracy and Tolerance accuses CAIR of being a "fifth column" in the United States. Jamal Hasan of the same organization discerns CAIR's goal as spreading "Islamic hegemony the world over by hook or by crook." Improving Islam's reputation will require two steps: that the great institutions of American life reject all contact with CAIR and like groups, while moderate Muslims build sound organizations, ones that neither apologize for terrorism nor seek "the government of the United States to be Islamic." Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, most recently Militant Islam Reaches America. Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, Daniel Pipes
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