FORMER MUSLIMS UNITED

 

September 21, 2009

 

Mr. Eric Holder, Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530-0001

 

Dear Mr. Holder:

We, as founders of Former Muslims United, respectfully request that your office inform us of your policies, programs and plans to protect and support former Muslims who because of authoritative Shariah doctrine, are the targets of discrimination, intimidation, assault, and the threat of execution.  The June 4, 2009 “Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on Department of Justice’s Outreach and Enforcement Efforts to Protect American Muslims” stated that “a top priority of this Justice Department is a return to robust civil rights enforcement and outreach in defending religious freedoms and other fundamental rights of all of our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the housing market, in our schools and in the voting booth.”  Please inform us how this top priority applies to former Muslims, the only group in the U.S. whose persecution and execution is permitted by a consensus of leading authorities of all schools of Shariah.

Please describe current and planned training and education programs for law enforcement and other government officials on the Shariah doctrine concerning former Muslims, and training and education on specific cases of threats and hate crimes against former Muslims.  Please describe as well the statistics and research processes in place for gathering information on hate crimes against former Muslims, and provide copies of any reports, speeches or press releases indicating the Department of Justice policies and programs protecting the rights of former Muslims.

Our request is urgent and based on the immediate needs of apostates from Islam in the United States.  We are all aware of incidents of intimidation and threats of violence against former Muslims.

The recent case showing the lack of professionalism in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation of the possible Shariah doctrinal threat against former Muslim Rifqa Bary, demonstrates the need for national policies and programs to educate law enforcement officials about the threat to apostates from Shariah.  Of particular note was the fact that the FDLE interviewed Ms. Bary’s family, whom she had identified as a threat to her safety,   in the presence of Mr. Babak Darvish and Mr. Romin Iqbal of the Council on American Islamic Relations, an organization named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial by the U.S. Department of Justice, and from which the FBI has distanced their relations.

CAIR supports Shariah doctrine as “the ongoing consensus of Islamic scholars” and CAIR’s former legal director singled out as “one of the most famous Muslim scholars” the Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi,  head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars.  In 2006, Qaradawi issued an influential ruling on death for former Muslims, stating “the Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah, Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”

The FDLE investigation and its involvement with CAIR may be representative of a lack of knowledge throughout the law enforcement community about Shariah doctrine. If law enforcement investigations of possible death threats against apostates are influenced by organizations, such as CAIR, that support Shariah scholars who endorse  death threats against apostates, we think that is a serious problem worthy of your immediate attention.

We look forward to learning about your efforts in protecting the civil rights and safety of former Muslims.  Towards that same goal, our organization is launching a national campaign to ask Muslim leaders to sign “The Muslim Pledge for Religious Freedom and Safety from Harm for Former Muslims.”  We enclose a copy of that pledge, and a representative cover letter, for your reference.

Sincerely,

 

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