Muslims against Extremism and Fundamentalism

Who or what is a Salafi? Is their approach valid?
Their basic claim is that Islam has not been properly understood by anyone since the prophet Mohammed and the early Muslims - except themselves.
By Nuh Ha Mim Keller

Who are the "moderate Muslims"?
The term moderate Muslims is not only becoming important in the post September 11 discussion of Islam and the West, it is also becoming highly contested. What do we really mean when we brand someone as a moderate Muslim? Indeed the more interesting question is what does the word mean to Westerns, looking-in to Islam, and to Muslims, looking out from within Islam?
By Muqtedar Khan, Ph.D.

Islam and Freedom of Thought
"What was once an occasional event -- silencing scholars -- increasingly has become a way of life in most Muslim countries.  From South Asia to North Africa, an entire generation of Muslim intellectuals is at this moment under threat: Many have already been killed, silenced, or forced into exile."
By Akbar Ahmed and Lawrence Rosen

Islam and the Theology of Power
"Supremacist puritanism in contemporary Islam is dismissive of all moral norms or ethical values."
By Khaled Abou El Fadl, UCLA School of Law.

Freedom and Islam
"Recently, I read an article, “Women in Islam” describing the liberation of women by Islam and Prophet (s). In reality women cannot travel alone to Hajj or visit Mecca (the safest place for any one), and women cannot drive a car in Saudi Arabia. It is not a secret that Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular in the world are the least free and least educated. So, I wonder: Oh Islam! You are a great theory but no practical value, unless you live in the West."
By T. O. Shanavas, M. D. Vice President,  Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc.

The threat of Islam or the threat to Islam
"Violent, extremist Islamists invoke on their own head the true jihad. Challenging all the peoples of the Earth, and first of all traditional Islam, professed by the overwhelming majority of the Islamic world, these forces put themselves in opposition to Islam. And reacting against them is a religious, moral, social and political duty of each Muslim."
A speech by Sheikh-ul-Islam, Talghat Tajuddin, Supreme Mufti, Representative of the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims for Russia and the East-European countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States
Moscow, June 28, 2001

Religion of the Jahiliya - Jihadism is Kufr, not Islam
A completely new religion seems to be catching the imagination of many people in Pakistan. Its followers don't, of course, consider it a new religion. Indeed this religion insists that it is Islam, in fact it calls itself true Islam or real Islam. But it can at best be described as Jihadism as its central belief system is based on a wilful misinterpretation of the Islamic concept of Jihad.
By Sultan Shaheen.

It's time to save our Islamic faith
"How did Islam, which was driven by the pursuit of knowledge, become so submerged in frightful ignorance?"
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Muslim author and broadcaster.

15 girls die as zealots 'drive them into blaze'
Saudi Arabia's religious police are reported to have forced schoolgirls back into a blazing building because they were not wearing Islamic headscarves and black robes.

Immoderate Muslims
M.A. Niazi analyzes the "ferment is in the Muslim world".

Muslims Must Develop an Intolerance for Intolerance
"When bigots speak up, moderate and responsible voices in the American Muslim community must immediately condemn them. Let them know that those who espouse intolerance will never be our heroes," writes M. A. Muqtedar Khan.

Bin Laden's violence is a heresy against Islam
"Mainstream theologians have come out unanimously against the terrorists. What we must now ask them is to campaign more strongly against the aberrant doctrines that underpin them", writes British Muslim convert scholar, Abdal-Hakim Murad.

A Time for Introspection
"The worst enemies of Islam are from within", writes American convert scholar of Islam, Hamza Yusuf.

A Memo to American Muslims
"It is time that we Muslims acknowledge that the freedoms we enjoy in the US are more desirable to us than superficial solidarity with the Muslim World. If you disagree, then prove it by packing your bags and going to whichever Muslim country you identify with."
Dr. M. A. Muqtedar Khan

Call for holy war condemned by Florida Muslim cleric
Osama bin Laden and his call for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States were denounced in a scathing address by the leader of one of Florida's largest mosques. 

Reject call for holy war, Florida Muslim leader says
"How could the Muslim leaders in the U.S. denounce armed forces against the Taliban when you've got Afghanis against the Taliban? I see some strong hypocrisy here.''
Imam Shafayet Mohamed, the religious leader of Darul Uloom in Pembroke Pines, South Florida's largest mosque.

Islam's Crossroads - Islamic leadership
Professor Akbar S. Ahmed, former Pakistani ambassador to London, says that the rise of Muslim fundamentalism means that Islamic leaders face a choice between moderation or militancy.

'If you hate the west, emigrate to a Muslim country'
American convert, Hamza Yusuf, one of  the West's most important Islamic scholars, tackles head on those extremist immigrant Muslims who "rant and rave" against the countries they live in.
The Guardian (London), October 8, 2001

Recapturing Islam from the Terrorists  
"Muslims cannot deny forever that doctrinal extremism can lead to political extremism. They must realise that it is traditional Islam, the only possible alternative to their position, which owns rich resources for the respectful acknowledgement of difference within itself, and with unbelievers."
by British convert to Islam, Abdal-Hakim Murad, 14 September 2001

THE POVERTY OF FANATICISM
"The Islamic movement risks ceasing to form an authentic summons to cultural and spiritual renewal, and existing as little more than a splintered array of maniacal factions. The prospect of such an appalling and humiliating end to the story of a religion which once surpassed all others in its capacity for tolerating debate and dissent is now a real possibility."
By British convert to Islam, Abdal-Hakim Murad.

On the Hijacking of Islam
"If the terrorists that struck the USA last week were indeed Muslims, they have not only committed murder, which carries the death penalty, but have also committed a physical attack upon Islam by the damage they have done to its image."
By Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood.

We must love others to be loved by God
"When we close our hearts to others, our eyes are closed to see the beauty of God in them. The message of Islam, Judaism, Christianity and all other religions is one of love and service to others.  If God decides to care and love and feed even those who deny his existence, then who are we to deprive someone else of our love just because he is of different color or speaks a different language or is born in a different country or prays to the same God but in a different direction, using different words?"
Dr. Shahid Athar

Where are the Teachers?
"The Taliban is in many ways a reflection of the present state of the Muslim Ummah -- lots of beards and turbans, but little wisdom and guidance.... Where are all our trusted scholars, those possessors of knowledge of the way of our Prophet (SAW)?" asks American convert to Islam, Abdul-Lateef Abdullah.

The Fight for the Soul of Islam in America
Amidst the competing agendas of Salafees, Sufis and Modernists, Yahiya Emerick calls on "everyday Muslims" to remember that Islam is a balanced way of life.

My fatwa on the fanatics
"The magnitude of the terrorist attack on America has forced Muslims to take a critical look at themselves. Why have we repeatedly turned a blind eye to the evil within our societies? Why have we allowed the sacred terms of Islam, such as fatwa and jihad, to be hijacked by obscurantist, fanatic extremists?"
Ziauddin Sardar, Observer (London), Sunday September 23, 2001

The True, Peaceful Face Of Islam
"The vast majority of Muslims, who are horrified by the atrocity of Sept. 11, must reclaim their faith from those who have so violently hijacked it."
Karen Armstrong, Time Magazine, October 1, 2001

Post-September 11 Interview with Dr. Mansur Abdussalam Escudero,
Former President of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Organisations
"There are many Muslims who have allowed themselves to be caught by the dialectic of ‘united against the Other’, and who have fallen into the logic of confrontation, exclusion, and war. But for us, Islam and the West are not incompatible. God is the One Creator. In reality, we ourselves are as much Muslims as we are Western. We are living proof of the falsity of this supposed incompatibility."

Looking for Answers In Islam's Holy Book
Despite Contradictions, Koran Favors Peace Over War, Scholars Say
'Osama bin Laden and other Muslim extremists "pick and choose" passages from the Koran to support a global jihad, or holy war, against the United States and other countries', said Barbara Stowasser, a Koranic scholar and director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University
By Bill Broadway, Washington Post, Saturday, September 29, 2001

Islam's tensions - Enemies within, enemies without
Islam remains a tolerant faith, despite its apparent new ferocity.
The Economist, September 20th 2001

Life in Afghanistan under the Taliban
Transcript of a CNN online chat with journalist Saira Shah, August 27, 2001
Saira Shah is a freelance journalist. She was born in Britain, of an Afghan family. She first visited Afghanistan at age 21 and worked there three years as a freelance journalist, covering the guerilla war against the Soviet occupiers. Later, working for Britain's Channel Four News, she covered some of the world's worst trouble spots.

American Jihad
"To counter Osama bin Laden's bogus jihad, we need an American-grown jihad led by a new generation of American Muslims", writes Rhonda Roumani.

We Muslims must decry the Taliban
'If Muslims really believe that Islam can be a force for good, why do they choose to ignore those who corrupt this potential?'
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The Independent (London), 10 September 2001

Yusuf Islam on September 11
Britain's first government-funded Islamic school closed temporarily last week amid a wave of anti-Muslim feeling. Its chairman of governors, Yusuf Islam - formerly the pop star Cat Stevens - explains why his adopted religion is the home of tolerance and not of fanaticism.
September 18, 2001

Muslims against Terrorism
Quotations, statements and articles by Muslims against terrorism and Osama bin Laden's misguided call for jihad against America.

Non Muslim Writers

Have We All Been Hijacked?
"Muslims can decide whether they are going to follow the hijackers into violence and hatred, away from the true teachings of Islam, or ensure that their faith is not driven off-course", writes Karen Armstrong.

Islam Hijacked
Rabbi Reuven Firestone, author of "Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam" and Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, offers his insights into the events of September 11.

Who Defines Islam?
The struggle for the soul of Muslim youth
By Jane Lampman, The Christian Science Monitor Sept. 20, 2001

Bin Laden: Islamists' new figurehead
Since the attacks against America on the 11 September, the world's media have been obsessed with the Saudi-born fugitive Osama Bin Laden, Washington's main suspect in the attacks.  But while much has been written about Bin Laden's life and the Islamic network, Al-Qaeda, which he's built up, rather less attention has been paid to the roots of the particular kind of Islamic extremism which he espouses.
BBC News, Friday, 19 October, 2001. By Middle East analysts Roger Hardy 

The roots of jihad
The Arabic word jihad means literally "struggle" and Islamic scholars have long been divided on how it should be interpreted.  For some it means the struggle to defend one's faith and ideals against harmful outside influences.  For others it has come to represent the duty of Muslims to fight to rid the Islamic world of western influence in the form of corrupt and despotic leaders and occupying armies.
BBC News, Tuesday, 16 October, 2001.  By Middle East analyst Fiona Symon.

War on terror: Syria's mixed reaction
"One cab driver launches into a tirade. He is upset because he thinks Bin Laden is disfiguring Islam and making life difficult for Muslims around the world."
BBC News, Wednesday, 17 October, 2001