Analyst's note: The man about whom I congratulate here is a medical doctor and a former U.S. Navy Lieutenatnt Commander, and the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phonenix, Arizona. Here we see a "moderate" or "normal" Muslim speaking out publically.
I applaud Dr. Jasser for his courageous stand against sharia law and his call for the separation of mosque and state and trust that there are other Muslims reformists in America who agree with him. Dr. Jasser indicates that he is American first and Muslim second.
I agree with Dr. Jasser, that Imam Rauf and his supporters are interested in making a political statement One must ask, "Why do so many in our own American government and media insist on supporting Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), and MAS (Muslim American Society)? Could it be that far too many have not learned the difference between Islam and the goals of the Islamist? This question gives them the benefit of the doubt, but we are running out of time. Such "leaders" must lead, follow, or get out of the way.
[....] I must ask Imam Rauf: For what do you stand—what's best for Americans overall, or for what you think is best for Islam? What have you said and argued to Muslim-majority nations to address their need for reform? You have said that Islam does not need reform, despite the stoning of women in Muslim countries, death sentences for apostates, and oppression of reformist Muslims and non-Muslims.
In your book, "What's Right With Islam," you cite the Brotherhood's radical longtime spiritual leader Imam Yusuf Qaradawi as a "moderate." Reformist American Muslims are not afraid to name Mr. Qaradawi and his ilk as radical. We Muslims should first separate mosque and state before lecturing Americans about church and state.
[....] Islamists in "moderate" disguise are still Islamists. In their own more subtle ways, the WTC mosque organizers end up serving the same aims of the separatist and supremacist wings of political Islam. In this epic struggle of the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the continuum between nonviolent political Islam and the militancy it ultimately fuels among the jihadists.
