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| Home Front: WoT |
| Moderate Moslems Remain Passive As Radicals Take Over Local Mosque |
| 2004-05-06 |
| MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Not long ago in my little mosque around the corner from a McDonald’s, a student from the university here delivered a sermon. To love the Prophet Muhammad, he said, "is to hate those who hate him." He railed against man-made doctrines that replace Islamic law, and excoriated the "enemies of Islam" who deny strict adherence to Sunnah, or the ways of Muhammad. While he wasn’t espousing violence, his words echoed the extremist vocabulary of Wahhabism, used by some followers to breed militant attitudes. Like others who listened that day, I was stung by the sermon. It stands in chilling contrast to reforms taking place within Muslim communities nationwide. ... Like many small mosques, mine does not have an imam. Instead, a governing board — which appoints its own members — sets policy. An elected executive committee is supposed to decide who will lead prayers and deliver sermons. With infighting, that committee disintegrated over the last year, and went vacant after the board failed to hold elections in November. The board took over managing the mosque. A month before the student’s speech, he and about 10 other men staged the equivalent of a coup. They appointed five in their ranks as the "temporary executive committee" and usurped the board’s power to choose who will lead prayers, preach and make management decisions. These men rally around strict interpretation of the Koran and Sunnah, which last week entailed a sermon that criticized women working outside the home and called women who have lost their chastity worthless. The group has packed the mosque’s bookcases with fundamentalist publications. Even though a majority of the mosque’s membership, which is largely made up of West Virginia University students and staff members, is moderate, passivity by it and the board has allowed extremism to take hold. One board leader told me that the board doesn’t want to "get aggressive." .... continues |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #16 Oooooo, my meter's buzzing like a swarm of cicadas... no-conflict: So, what did he say and how did he say it? Specifics, plz. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-21 3:16:28 PM |
| #15 I know what happened that day and what that wahhabi boy said. He didn't say in the manner presented by Noumani. Asra Noumani is really a talented woman to manipulate words and give other meanings. Thanks God she is not a lawyer. |
| Posted by: no-conflict 2004-05-21 3:08:20 PM |
| #14 Carl in N.H - well done mate - Idon't know if you're pro or anti 'all this' but that poem keeps coming into my head as well. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-05-06 5:31:04 PM |
| #13 Moderate Moslems Remain Passive To do otherwise would be to stop being moderate. Moderates are passive by their very nature. To ask why moderate Moslems don't decry anything is pointless. Moderates don't really decry anything. They stroke their beards. They say, "Hmm... there's an interesting alternative viewpoint. I wonder what I feeeeeeel about that..." |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-05-06 2:24:26 PM |
| #12 Right, Lucky--very astute, and thanks peggy--also very astute. Infiltration of mosques all over the civilized world is one of the stated goals of radical Islam (some give money, some blow things up, some recruit and run money, some work on the internet, and some radicalize mosques--all are considered to be doing the work of "Allah" for the jihad). They leverage against the complacency and normalcy of the moderates in their midst, condemn them and then simply shove them out. It's not that hard, because to battle the "Islamioidz from Hell," the moderates would have to have a grip on the whole situation regarding the WOT, which, unfortunately, most do not have. Next, the "brand," if you will, of the Islam the terrorists ascribe to, glorifies aggression of any kind, at any cost, in order to meet their fascist objectives. The moderates would have to be just as aggressive in order to give them the boot. They could do it, but they'd have to organize (difficult for them) and have a pretty clear line on a common ideology regarding what Islam is or isn't in their estimation (almost impossible for them, considering that Islam is a labyrinth of cult logic). And if they did put up a fuss, the bad guys would let them have it--with no remorse. They know that's what would happen if they spoke up, and that's one reason I think a lot of them are silent. There's just no policing the bad guys--if the Islamoidz don't like what one mullah is saying, they'll just go to one who agrees with them, and continue on the same track--easy to do since Islam, itself, is rife with confusion and condones evil-deed-doing. Islam is a bizzare, psychotic patchwork of ideas and rules, which change depending on who's in control. Islam is textually inconsistent and morally inferior--what better place for criminals to find refuge. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-05-06 2:15:32 PM |
| #11 Do you think a lamb like Gentle would do squat. Nope, she'll cover-up. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-05-06 12:22:27 PM |
| #10 Nothing new here. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-05-06 12:11:57 PM |
| #9 LH, OT, but ever since 9/11/2001 I have that on my desktop: Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all convictions, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Yeats has the perfect tone for our world. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H 2004-05-06 11:56:59 AM |
| #8 The reason is simple. Moderate Islam is a chimera, a pretty fiction that some believe in order to salvage Islam. It has no power in itself, therefore it is powerless to stop agressors. Moderate Islam is toothless because it is a contradiction in terms. When a person renounces Islam's inherant agressiveness, there isn't much left with which to deal decisively with tough intractable problems. |
| Posted by: peggy 2004-05-06 11:23:19 AM |
| #7 any of you ever been involved in an battle for control inside a church or synagogue? I have, and I can tell you it gets pretty nasty. I belonged to a synagogue that was unaffiliated, but was effectively in between Reform and Conservative. The Reform faction out maneuvered us, and took over. I kept attending till I moved from the city, though I also started attending some other synagogues. I certainly didnt go and attempt to start another new synagogue - helping found this one was hard enough, and it was very disappointing what happened. I moved to another city shortly thereafter anyway. I wonder if any of you are members of the Episcopal Church - the battles there are only beginning I think. Probably only one mosque in Morgantown, as opposed to say London :-) I assume starting a new mosque is as much a hassle as starting a new church. Passivity is natural on the part of people with jobs and family responsibilities "The worst are full of passionate intensity, while the best lack all conviction" |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-05-06 11:00:52 AM |
| #6 It stands in chilling contrast to reforms taking place within Muslim communities nationwide. I don't have a registration for NYT. Does he explain just what reforms are taking place within Muz communities? This is the first I've heard of it. |
| Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar 2004-05-06 10:08:16 AM |
| #5 From the CPA Briefing 5-5-04: "Yesterday coalition forces conducted a cordon and search in the vicinity of the Ali Mohammed mosque in northwest Baghdad for five individuals believed to responsible for an IED that killed coalition soldiers on 2 May. Forces detained five individuals, of which all tested positive with a vapor tracer for both TNT and TNB. Coalition forces also reported that anti-coalition propaganda continues to be broadcast at the mosque -- propaganda urging Iraqis to engage coalition forces." The bin Ladens of the world want the WoT to be seen as a War on Islam. It is part of their plan. It has infiltrated deeply into Islam and the question remains - how deeply? How can the supposed vast majority of Muslims sit back and allow their religion to be characterized the "child bomber" mentality? This little story about the W.Va. mosque is a little example of what is happening, and unfortunately, how "moderate" Muslims world wide are responding. They are losing their religion to a fanatical philosophy that has no future for its adherents or for the world. |
| Posted by: Jake 2004-05-06 10:04:51 AM |
| #4 Moderate Moslems Remain Passive Our main coincern in the UK - I didn't notice many supposedly moderate Muslims at Regent's Park Mosque preventing Hamza burning the Union Jack. (Saying that, neither did the police...) |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-05-06 9:21:09 AM |
| #3 This fundamentalism is clearly in fashion worldwide, and doesn't necessarily need a centrally controlled conspiracy to keep it spreading. For some reason a mindset just takes over, like a virus, or a mass hallucination. |
| Posted by: virginian 2004-05-06 8:48:50 AM |
| #2 All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men etc. etc. Great article, and as .com surmises, probably describes more or less what has happened in thousands of moskkks the world over. |
| Posted by: docob 2004-05-06 8:37:17 AM |
| #1 A coup - much cheaper than building your own moskkk and with a ready-made congregation, to boot. What will these "moderates" do? Take back the moskkk? Contend with and defeat the extremists? Boycott attending and contributing? Form a new, moderate, moskkk? Prolly none of the above. A few might stop attending, but not many - it is a requirement of the religion. No, this little coup - prolly repeated in almost the same manner tens of thousands of times all over the world for the last 35 years, since Wahhabism put on its dancing shoes, is a classic. People are predictable and odd ducks. One of my favorite aspects is that of habituation. Even a Princess can learn to tolerate the pea under her mattresses - eventually. Why, in time, methinks she can tolerate a few dozen AK-47's. In this moskkk, 5 years on, no one will remember what passes for "moderate" today. Then, a "moderate" will prolly be someone who doesn't donate his children to the cause until they are at least 15 or 16. In other words, a slacker. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-05-06 8:08:41 AM |