By holding such a trial in New York, America, intentionally or unintentionally, will be contributing to reforming Islam’s image, supporting its old ways of doing business and suppressing the brave reformation movements across the Muslim world, a true New Year’s gift to King Abdullah.
by Nonie Darwish
Islam is in trouble at the heart of its birthplace, Saudi Arabia, and consequently in other Muslim countries. Muslim leaders and media are desperately trying to regain control both internally and externally. Muslims are starting to openly and defiantly question; while the international image of Islam is being tarnished daily with every act of terror, hate speech and calls for jihad from the pulpits of mosques. The traditional open calls for violence and jihad Islam got away with for centuries is now under scrutiny especially after 9/11. Islam is now under the microscope. That is the quagmire of Muslims today. How can they continue teaching their basic religious jihad education but still save face and Islam’s reputation in a culture where image and honor is everything.
The West is not fully aware of what is happening in the Muslim world today where taboo topics are being discussed by brave Muslim reformists and former Muslims. There are ground breaking Arabic TV and internet shows aired inside homes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, etc, discussing what ordinary Muslims were never allowed to heard before. The brilliant Rachid Hmami, a Former Muslim turned Christian and originally from Morocco, has a show, Suaal Garii ‘Daring Question,’ that is making shock waves across the Middle East. Another equally effective show, is that of the brave Coptic priest, Father Zakareya Botros, who was imprisoned in Egypt for proselytizing to Muslims. Father Botros’s show is a huge success in exposing tyranny, contradictions and weaknesses in Islam. Muslims who call in, are often in shocked by what they hear for the first time about their own religion, yet another proof that Muslim establishment intentionally spreads misinformation and ignorance of basic Muslim doctrines to Muslims. Many Muslims, even from Saudi Arabia, call in to renounce Islam.
Unprecedented defiance is happening in the heart of the Muslim world. Recently a prominent Egyptian female attorney and human rights advocate, Nagla Al Imam, announced she left Islam and became a Christian and insists that she will remain in Egypt, in defiance of Islamic law condemning her to death. She is now under intense
24-hour security. Islam is in trouble from within.
Both, King Abdullah, custodian of the two Holy Mosques of Islam in Mecca and Medina, and the Islamic establishment everywhere, are extremely alarmed by the status of Islam today. Their power to control Muslims, trained for centuries to blind submission, is slipping away. Huge sums of oil money dedicated to rescue Islam’s image, is not enough to do the job.
That is where Obama’s services come to the rescue of King Abdulla. Obama’s bow to the king was no small matter, but of great significance in Muslim culture. It is a Muslim symbol of subjugation and inferiority.
It was said that Obama decision to hold a trial in New York of the confessed mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, and the rest of the Guantanamo detainees, is proof of the US’s just legal system. But the Muslim world already knows that. Not one Muslim country demanded such a trial or claimed the KSM was innocent. To the contrary, the Muslim public, in general, think that Americans are stupid for opening their country to such terrorists and giving visas to terrorists while often denying it to legitimate travelers. Recently, my daughter innocently asked, why is America trying to tame untamable terrorists, it is like “having a pet shark”.
The claims that such a trial will give an opportunity to the terrorists to justify their actions and hate propaganda, is true, but it is much more than that. Such a trial will vindicate and justify mainstream Islamic education of hatred and will help Muslim establishment tighten their screws. It will greatly boost to the status quo in Muslim counties and an opportunity for Arab media and Muslim clerics to justify 9/11, their hate propaganda, incitement to violence and outright lies. This trial will be a set back to Muslim reformers, human rights activists and Arab feminists. It is telling them there is a good reason for Islamic violence dictated by Sharia law.
This trial will create unnecessary sympathy among the many uninformed Western citizens to Islamist fictitious ‘causes’ and finger-pointing Muslims have been taught and believed in since birth. Like the OJ Simpson trial, a good portion of Americans will be confused over glaring truths which will cause a huge set back to America’s war on terror.
Knowingly or unknowingly, Obama has given a great gift for the New Year to the custodian of Islam, King Abdullah; a self-imposed trial by the victim nation of 9/11, a free televised propaganda machine from ground zero, to rescue mainstream Islam’s reputation. Protecting the image of Islam is one of the basic duties of Muslim leaders and the utmost obligation of every Muslim who is obliged by Islamic law to lie, cheat and kill for its sake.
By holding such a trial in New York, America, intentionally or unintentionally, will be contributing to reforming Islam’s image, supporting its old ways of doing business and suppressing the brave reformation movements across the Muslim world, a true New Year’s gift to King Abdullah.
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Nonie Darwish is co-founder of FormerMuslimsUnited.org and author of ‘Cruel and Usual Punishment’.
