Major Nidal Hasan and Us.
Syed Nadeem Ahsan, MD
The Saudi-ization/ Radicalization of Islam in the US places America and Muslim-Americans at grave risk.
The cover of this week's Time magazine asks; "Is Fort Hood an aberration or a sign of things to come?" A perfectly reasonable question given that a major driving force behind Major Hasan's psychopathic rampage is his belief system, one that was acquired here in the US at a mosque that is quite similar to the mosques you and I might have been attending in our own towns. Mosques where indoctrination of Muslims into the ways of the Wahabi is on going.
Speaking at the memorial for the fallen soldiers at Fort Hood, President Obama told the crowd of mourners; "No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor..." . This is a silly half-truth at best and a craven, patronizing lie at worst. But Obama means well when he defends Major Hasan's god, even when everyone knows that the god of the Wahabis does indeed encourage slaughter of the innocent. You need to look no further than the many thousands dead and dying in Pakistan for an illustration.
Major Hasan is merely the tip of a particularly sinister iceberg, emblematic in both his bewilderment and actions, of the worsening disarray that Muslims in the US are falling into. This crisis is by and large of the making of the mosques that have the unique misfortune of being squarely in the clutches of obscurantist Saudi-begotten mullahs that are often from parts of the world where Muslims are forever being humiliated by the belligerence of the Israelis, Israel's surrogate; US foreign policy, and their own dictatorial governments, and who, through uncontested ownership of the bully pulpit, are brow-beating hapless American-Muslims into unquestioned acceptance of a particularly poisonous brand of faith; the Wahabi-Arab Islam of the sort Major Hasan practices.
In 2006, six men attending the Palmyra mosque in New Jersey were arrested and subsequently found guilty of planning an attack on US soldiers stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Despite this, the leadership of that mosque has failed to display any worthwhile contrition and has steadfastly refused to change the tenor of the discourse at that mosque. Similarly, the mosque in my hometown in New Jersey, built mostly through the efforts of a Pakistani-American couple few years ago, has over the last two years been taken over completely by Saudiized radicals. The Imam, a young Saudi-indoctrinated zealot takes every opportunity to torment young children entrusted to his care with ironclad guarantees of hell if they do such horrible things as go trick-or-treating on Halloween or even celebrate their own birthdays! This man and his fellow guest Imams openly militate for good Muslims to withdraw from the mainstream. They demand that Muslims minimize their interactions with the mushrikeen and follow the Imams' edicts sans question. The obscurantist, isolationist mindset they wish to inculcate amongst American-Muslims is rapidly becoming the predominant mindset, one that is an obstacle in the way of Muslims becoming fully engaged citizens of this great nation, like the Jews or Hindus have become, and one that will lead to the downfall of all Muslims in this country as more Major Hasans launch suicide missions and fed up Americans do all they can to restore order.
In a recent article titled "The Saudiisation of Pakistan", Pakistani academic/commentator Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote: For three decades, deep tectonic forces have been silently tearing Pakistan away from the Indian subcontinent and driving it towards the Arabian peninsula. This continental drift is not physical but cultural, driven by a belief that Pakistan must exchange its South Asian identity for an Arab-Muslim one. Grain by grain, the desert sands of Saudi Arabia are replacing the rich soil that had nurtured a magnificent Muslim culture in India for a thousand years. This culture produced Mughul architecture, the Taj Mahal, the poetry of Asadullah Khan Ghalib, and much more. Now a stern, unyielding version of Islam (Wahhabism) is replacing the kinder, gentler Islam of the Sufis and saints who had walked on this land for hundreds of years. A picture very similar to this is emerging in the US as well, creating such monstrosities as the 9/11 hijackers (15 out 19 of whom were Saudis!), Major Hasan and further oppression of Muslim women. The Saudi-isation of a once-vibrant Pakistani-American culture too continues at a relentless pace. Social events are becoming increasingly segregated and Wahabi proselytizers can be found in numbers even at completely secular community events such as Pakistan Day celebrations.
Islam's last remaining hope was the Muslims of the West. But this hope too is being extinguished by the Saudi-Wahabis that have completely taken over American mosques -- and more tragically, American Sunday schools, where little minds are being filled with the kind of fanaticism that leads to the sort of behaviour Major Hasan exhibited. The odds are stacked against those that wish to rescue Muslim communities from this scourge. The Saudi-Wahabis are too resourceful and way too entrenched already for the rescuers to be able to mount a meaningful revival. Muslims are becoming more marginalized each day and Muslim children are in increasing danger of being ostracized by the mainstream.
The crisis for Muslim-Americans is compounded by the fact that their leadership remains in the hands of such groups as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which supports the Saudi regime, and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which is composed of members of Jamaat e-Islami, a Pakistani fundamentalist organization that helped to establish the Taliban. These organizations are taking advantage of the fact that Americans don't like to interfere in the religion of other people. But the reality is that Saudi Islam isn't a religion, it's a politicized radical ideology. And the people who are being taught this ideology are prime targets for recruitment by terror organizations. And the true moderates in the American-Muslim community are continually losing ground and being made to retreat further and further from their non-Salafi Sufi/Barelvi antecedents; the Islam of co-existence and the Islam of being an active part of the mainstream.
A small ray of hope would appear to be such movements as the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC), founded by Tarek Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian journalist and the Washington DC-based Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP). Both organizations are looking to counter Wahabi madness through a belief in a progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular society where everyone has the freedom of religion. It goes without saying that that fanaticism and extremism within the Muslim community is a major challenge to all of us. We must stand opposed to the extremists and must present the more humane and tolerant face of our community to our fellow-countrymen and to the rest of the Islamic world. Because if things keep going in the current direction, all of us, conservative-Muslims, liberal-Muslims, secular-Muslims, cultural-Muslims, we will all be buried together under the deluge of American outrage. And we all know our children deserve better.
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The author is an academic physician working in Philadelphia, PA, and can be reached at dervaishbaba@hotmail.com
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