>Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem was-salaat
>was-salaam ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa
>sahbihi wa sallam
>
>AsSalamu alaykum wa Rahmat Allah wa Barakatu
>
>It is regretful but revealing that AMPCC,
>AMA[alliance], AMC, CAIR,
>MPAC,ICNA,ISNA,and MSA would issue a
>statement condemning Shaykh
>Hisham Kabbani's speech to the state
>department. I pray this be
>a hoax and that these organizations declare
>themselves innocent
>of this slanderous statement.
>
>Notice that not one of Shaykh Hisham's
>statements were refuted,
>rather these organizations tried to quote out
>of context to rally
>Muslims away from a voice of moderation. The
>condemnation is quoted
>in full:
>
>>MAJOR MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS CONDEMN KABBANI'S
>STATEMENTS
>>American Muslim leaders demand retraction
>and apology
>>
>>It is with heavy hearts that we, the
>undersigned national American
>>Muslim organizations, feel compelled to
>defend our community and its
>>representatives from false and defamatory
>allegations.
>
>Notice in what follows no statement is shown
>to be false or defamatory
>to anyone, except that the statements
>criticize extremism.
>
>As for the allegation that the Muslim
>community needs a defense
>against Shaykh Hisham, then this is a clearly
>misleading statement
>that falsely implies that Shaykh Hisham
>accused the Muslim community
>as a whole of extremism. His own words from
>the speech refute that:
>
> "This is what I want to say to you, to
>present to you from within
>  the Muslim community. We want to tell you
>that the Muslim community
>  as a whole is innocent from whatever
>extremism and extremist ideology
>  is being spread around the world."
>
>>In a January 7, 1999, presentation to a
>State Department Open Forum, Mr.
>>Hisham Kabbani, Chairman of the self-styled
>"Islamic Supreme Council of
>>America," made a number of unsubstantiated
>allegations that could have a
>>profoundly negative impact on ordinary
>American Muslims.
>
>Another attempt to rally "ordinary" Muslims
>against Shaykh Hisham Kabbani,
>again without substantiation. The derogatory
>tone of the authors and
>lack of respect for a Muslim Shaykh is
>obvious.
>
>
>>In the State Department forum, Mr. Kabbani:
>>
>>1) Alleged that the "ideology of extremism
>has been spread to eighty
>>percent of the [American] Muslim
>population." Having also stated that
>>"extremists" gained control of American
>mosques through elections, Mr.
>>Kabbani further strengthens the impression
>that the Muslim community as
>>a whole is extremist.
>
>A statement purposely taken out of context,
>here is some context:
>
>"...Extremism has been spread to 80 per cent
>of the Muslim
> population. Not all of them agree with
>it..."
>
>Therefore the word "spread" is clearly
>indicated to mean that the
>extremist ideology has reached 80% of Muslims
>and not that 80% of
>Muslims accepted it and became extremist.
>This is a Shame on the
>leaders of the organizations below that they
>have to resort to such
>quoting out of context to slander a Muslim
>Shaykh. Several lines
>later Shaykh Hisham said to confirm his view:
>
>"...the Muslim community as a whole is
>innocent from whatever
> extremism and extremist ideology is being
>spread around the world."
>
>As for the second allegation, it comes from
>these words regarding
>extremists:
>
>"They hijacked the mike, or they were elected
>because they are
> good speakers, but they give a wrong idea
>about Islam."
>
>Note that Shaykh Hisham differentiates
>extremists as follows:
>
>"There are two kinds of extremism: there is
>the extremism ideology
> and there is the extremist militant
>movement."
>
>The former type is the one Shaykh Hisham
>points to as having
>"hijacked the mike". He explains the rise of
>Wahhabism, and
>its attempted reformation of Islam.
>
>Anyone who has been to many Islamic centers
>in the US knows that
>Wahhabi ideologies are widely spread among
>leaders of many Mosques,
>preventing Dhikr, cursing Tasawwuf,
>preventing Mawlid et cetra. Notice
>that overseas organizations that started
>along similar Wahhabi trends
>are now bombing Muslims in the Caucaus, Sudan
>and many other places
>in the name of purifying Islam from what they
>view as 'Kufr, Bid'a and
>Shirk', but in reality it is traditional
>Islam they attack.
>
>>2) Claimed that "there are many, many Muslim
>organizations, that they
>>speak on behalf of the Muslim community, but
>in reality they are not
>>moderate, but they are extremist...These
>people are very well supported,
>>very well affiliated with outside regimes,
>that they have been sponsored
>>by billions of dollars to be active within
>the United States..."
>
>These are actually parts of two different
>paragraphs joined together
>only in this letter by three dots "...". They
>are actually paragraphs
>apart. Here is more context:
>
>"...there are many Muslim organizations that
>claim to speak on
> behalf of the Muslim community but that in
>reality are not moderate,
> but extremist. They hijacked the mike, or
>they were elected because
> they are good speakers, but they give a
>wrong idea about Islam."
>
>This is known to those with experience in
>Islamic centers. Again
>Shaykh Hisham confirms what the authors of
>this letter try to hide,
>that he views the Muslim community as
>moderate. Shame on those
>who slander Muslim Shaykhs with their lies.
>The second half of that
>(mis)quoted above comes in a different part
>of the speech:
>
>"You are not hearing the authentic voice of
>Muslims, of moderate Muslims,
> but you are hearing the extremist voice of
>Muslims. That's why they are
> getting a wrong idea, because the extremists
>are very well supported,
> are very well affiliated with outside
>regimes that have sponsored them
> with billions of dollars to be active in the
>United States."
>
>Again Shaykh Hisham confirms that Muslims in
>general are moderate,
>he states a well know fact that outside
>regimes are supporting
>extremist[ideological] views in the US.
>Anyone who has been involved
>in Islamic centers knows how certain
>countries frequently will offer
>to give free books with Wahhabi ideology, and
>gradually take over or
>have those who support their views take over
>Islamic centers and
>throw out authentic Muslims who speak the
>truth. An example is the
>preventers of Mawlid, celebration of the
>birthday of the Prophet,
>Salla Allahu alayhi wa Sallam, which is
>practiced in nearly every
>Islamic country, how many a Masjid today
>following extremist leadership
>has banned it and ridiculed its approval by
>the overwhelming majority
>of Islamic scholars.
>
>>3) Claiming that the main national Muslim
>student organization is "being
>>run mostly by extremist ideology," Mr.
>Kabbani raised the bizarre
>>specter that the Bin Laden organization was
>"able to buy more than 20
>>atomic weapons, atomic nuclear heads, from
>some Mafias in the ex-Soviet
>>Union...and now they are hiring thousands of
>scientists from the
>>ex-Soviet in order to make these atomic
>warheads into smaller
>>partitions, smaller particles, in order to
>be, like small chips to be
>>put in any suit case, even in a handbag, and
>be shipped anyplace,
>>anywhere in the world...If these small
>nuclear atomic warheads reach
>>these (U.S.) universities, you don't know,
>these students, what they are
>>going to do, because their way of thinking
>is brainwashed and limited."
>
>Shaykh Hisham defined extremism as:
>
>"Extremism in Islam, or in religion, is when
>you use religion to
> label intolerance, to turn from religion and
>take ideas that you
> can extract for yourself, or deduce for
>yourself, and use to make
> a militant movement and disturb the peace in
>your country or around
> the world."
>
>He clarified that extremism may be
>ideological or militant. Therefore
>extremist ideology in Islam involves
>intolerence and self deduced
>Islamic rulings, and both of these have been
>clearly seen from the
>leadership of some Muslim student
>oraganizations, some who frankly
>say they do not care what the scholars of
>Islam say, rather they
>will deduce their own understandings of Quran
>and Sunnah. Or they
>demonstrate intolence to authentic Islam, as
>Dhikr, Tasbih, Tasawwuf
>et cetra, calling out "Bid'a", "Shirk",
>"Kufr".
>
>As to Bin Laden and his plans, then the
>authors of this letter
>of condemnation are speaking in ignorance of
>the truth, and
>throwing serious allegations on issues they
>do not have knowledge
>of simply because they sound unlikely to
>them. Why would not a
>well connected multi-millionare as Bin Laden
>be able to procure
>a few of the 22,000 Russian nuclear warheads
>and hire for his
>cause Russian scientists for a steep price,
>when the Russians
>are in very hard economic times. If he were
>to find someone to
>do a devious deed for him in this country,
>and he has stated his
>intention to get American blood, then is it
>so absurd to believe
>he would recruit a disgruntled misguided
>student who has been
>brainwashed into thinking he must get even
>with America.
>
>>Adding insult to injury, Mr. Kabbani even
>promoted and generalized an
>>allegation that Muslim women in Europe "who
>are during the day, covered
>>from top to bottom and, during the night,
>have dates. They are dating
>>high officials in many countries around the
>world to take the
>>information from them and to give it to the
>extremists."
>
>Another lie and quotation out of context. It
>is truly amazing
>that all these Muslim organizations who
>signed below, if this is
>truly their signature, would stoop this low
>to slander a Muslim
>Shaykh.
>
>The lie:
>
>"promoted and generalized an allegation that
>Muslim women in
> Europe..."
>
>Here is the proper quote in context from
>Shaykh Hisham's speech
>after explaining how extremist organizations
>are not following
>Islam as is well known many sell drugs to get
>cash for weapons
>and supplies, he adds the following:
>
>"Recently they found in London, between
>London and France and all
> that area in Western Europe, that there is a
>big network of women
> that one of the very famous Arabic
>newspapers - either al Wasat
> or al Watat al Arabi - revealed in a big
>report two or three months
> ago. They found a network run by Muslim
>women who, during the day,
> are covered from top to bottom and, during
>the night, have dates.
> They are dating high officials in many
>countries around the world to
> take the information from them and to give
>it to the extremists. We
> have to ask ourselves: is this Islamic or
>un-Islamic?"
>
>Note this is NOT generalized to Muslim women,
>and again the point
>which the authors of this condemnation try to
>hide is that Sahykh
>Hisham is defending Muslims from false Islam,
>not as they falsely
>claim attacking Muslims.
>
>>Through outrageous statements such as these,
>Mr. Kabbani has put the
>>entire American Muslim community under
>unjustified suspicion. In effect,
>>Mr. Kabbani is telling government officials
>that the majority of American
>>Muslims pose a danger to our society.
>
>Notice that not a single statement quoted
>above justified the false
>conclusion of the authors. The letter builds
>itself up then ends up
>being a slanderous baseless shameful gang
>attack on a Muslim Shaykh
>who has worked hard to promote Islamic unity
>and understanding.
>
>>Additionally, Islamophobic individuals and
>groups may use these
>>statements as an excuse to commit hate
>crimes against Muslims of the
>>kind witnessed following the bombing of the
>Murrah Federal Building
>>in Oklahoma City when Muslim-bashers, Steven
>Emerson and others,
>>offered similarly unsubstantiated claims
>that Muslims were behind the
>>attack.
>
>The authors seemed to have missed the whole
>point of Shaykh Hisham's
>speech. There is no justification for
>terrorism. There are no excuses
>for hate crimes. Muslims will not stand
>behind those who commit crimes
>in the name of Islam. Islam is not extremist,
>a few Muslims may be,
>the Muslim community is innocent of their
>deeds.
>
>Furthermore the worst "Muslim-bashers" are
>those who commit terrorism
>and say it is Islam and that they are good
>Muslims. Islam is more
>harmed by those among us that "excuse"
>extremism, than by those
>outside us who may falsely allege that islam
>is itself extreme.
>In the latter case many people are wise
>enough not to take a
>non-Muslims view about Islam as being very
>accurate.
>
>
>>We therefore ask Mr. Kabbani to promptly and
>publicly retract his
>>statements, to apologize to the American
>Muslim community, and to exert
>>his utmost effort to undo the damage these
>statements have done.
>
>It seems that the apology should be from the
>undersigned to
>Shaykh Hisham for falsely representing his
>speech as is clear
>above and to the Muslim Community for lying
>to them.
>
>>The issue is not that of a mere difference
>of opinion within an American
>>religious community, but involves the
>irresponsible act of providing
>>false information to government officials.
>This false information can
>>jeopardize the safety and well being of our
>community and hurt America
>>itself by damaging its values of
>inclusiveness, fairness, and liberty.
>
>The undersigned seem to commend America for
>its values of
>"inclusiveness, fairness, and liberty". Yet
>some affiliated
>with them have notoriously banned and
>slandered Shaykh Hisham
>Kabbani. Shaykh Hisham held the Islamic Unity
>Conference and
>invited all, yet a concerted effort by
>hypocrites was to prevent
>people from attending a conference where
>Terrorism was condemned
>and Islam was declared innocent of Terrorism.
>Those hypocrites
>showed no inclusiveness, no fairness and no