Empowering Moderate Muslims In The Media Fight Against Terrorism
and Anti-Semitism
The International Quranic Center, a 501c3 committed to articulating a vision of Islam as an inclusive and peaceful religion has established a website -- Ahl-alquran website (www.ahl-alquran.com ) -- that has become a serious participant in the international debate about the reality, interpretation, and future of Islam. IQC is the platform lead by Sheikh Ahmed Subhy Mansour, whose articulation of the Koran and writings have become the foundations of an enlightened view of Islam and its role in the religions of the world. IQC proposes to initiate a large expansion for its operations through establishing an Islamic drama company that will produce materials in Arabic and enlarge its presence online through enhancing its website content and service by institutionalizing its support system and providing necessary administrative and technical support.
- Background:
This proposal aims to address the importance of supporting Muslim moderates in their struggle against the Wahabists monopoly over the visual and online media in the Muslim world. The majority of the Muslims people are left to the dominating influence of Aljazeera and other media institutions that promote fanatic ideas and hostility towards the west. This is not only taking place through satellite, but also through the internet. According to Alexa.com (the world largest ranking website engine) Aljazeera website is the first and the most read website over the Muslim world particularly, and among the first 500 websites all over the world generally. Furthermore, Islam online, the sister website, is among the first 800 in traffic rank over the internet. Both websites provide constant support for the Wahabi tradition and its militant leaders, by ideologically supporting their jihadist crusade in Iraq and elsewhere.
According to the heritage of these websites, Westerners and followers of other religions are infidels and should be fought and subjugated to Islam. They live in the “land of war” as Ibn Laden explains. Alqaradawi, the famous fanatic Sheikh who supervises Islam online website and also has stakes in Aljazeera, issued a fatwa indicating that killing American Civilians is Iraq is a religious duty for every and each living Muslim[1]. Furthermore, he said that killing all Jews in Palestine, including civilians, is also a divine obligation.[2]. He even issued the same fatwa in support for Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel.[3]
On the other hand, the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, is losing the “war of Ideas” against terrorism, according to the former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld himself. The United States, who has previously managed to win the cold war against the Soviet Union through media and propaganda, is losing miserably in this encounter. The reason for that is that Americans lack the ideological, cultural, and historical backgrounds of the Wahabists terrorism phenomena. They are unable to reach out for Muslims because they have not been able to use the same ways which Wahabists have used to influence and brain wash the majority of Muslims world wide: Cinema Drama and Online media.
In the pursuit of fighting terrorism, it should be clear that it is a long term tedious commitment; the fanatics Muslims have been and actually still are waging this war of ideas in Arabic language against the U.S, and the Jews. They are also doing their best in brainwashing the majority of the Muslims around the world. Their influence reaches the Muslim communities in the West and in America. It is not hard to them to create the American Taliban in few decades if America still fighting the war of ideas by it military forces.
If we took the war in Iraq as in example, we can clearly see it is a war of ideas. The frequent horrible terrorism acts against the American forces in Iraq has proven more and more that the American foreign policy makers have proven to know a lot about the Iraqi oil, but almost nothing about the Iraqi people. The problem of Iraq, is no different that the rest of the Arab and Muslim world. It is a problem of conflict of ideas, not military interaction.
- Objectives of the project:
The project aims to approach the silent Muslim majority and recruiting them to the moderate side. It is not hard to convince some of the fanatics by using the fanatic tradition against them. It is not hard to convince the Arabic majority that their real enemy is not Israel or America but the fanatic terrorists and the dictators. It is not hard to defeat all the fanatic Muslims in this soft war; war of ideas. We only need to reach out for them. This can happen through:
- Producing Islamic drama in Arabic: Drama has the most effective impact on Arab and Muslim viewers. All kinds of drama – social, political, and even thrillers – can easily serve our cause, either in the main plot, or in deliberate comments said by the characters. Historical drama teems with thousands of issues which a writer can use to highlight virtuous values and raise the awareness of viewers. In all kinds of drama, different themes can be incorporated in natural conversations that are both congruous with the context, and void of direct preaching.
- Winning the online war: Ahl-alquran website (www.ahl-alquran.com ) is the official gate of the international Quranic Center. It was created in Sep. 2006 as a platform that gathers the moderate Muslim scholars around the globe to interact, discuss, and deliberate. Even though the website is currently being administrated on voluntary basis, the website developers and editors have managed to sustain constant feeds to the visitors.
- Sponsoring dialogue between religions: The International Quranic Center and its website contributors include followers of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. IQC is governed by an interfaith Board of directors including people of various faiths including Muslims, Christians and Jews. The chairman of the Board of Directors is Jewish, the President is a Muslim, and the Vice President is Coptic.
- Educating Americans how to encounter terrorism.
- Program Approach
Americans foreign policy makers and officials often mix between Islam and Muslims. This is wrong because Islam is just (good) ideas or (good) values. However, let’s talk using your understanding about Islam. Saying Islam is just all those Muslims means there are two kinds of Islam: the moderate Islam (or moderate Muslims) and the fanatic Islam (or Fanatic Muslims). The question is: why do not you use the moderate Islam against the fanatic Islam? This will save you billions of dollars and thousands of American lives.
Muslims now are one billion and some hundreds of millions. Suppose, you consider all of them fanatics, can you kill them all? You could not. You have to educate them from within their own religion. This is exactly what the Quranists have been successful in doing for thirty years.
Suppose you consider the fanatic Muslim just few millions. Can you kill all these millions? Suppose you could. But if you do so, you could not kill the ideas because they are just ideas. More over, their ideas will control more millions inside and out side of America. Ideas could not get killed. Persecution gives ideas more power.
A – Producing Islamic Drama in Arabic:
We can defeat them by (Hollywood). By drama and movies we can win the victory and the money as well. It is a fruitful profitable business and patriotism in the same time. It has the vast market in Muslim World (one Billion and half billion) beside none-Muslims who are eager to know the other side of the Muslim life and Muslim traditions and heritage and history.
This drama will reach out all the Muslims in the entire World. It will undeceive the silent majority of Muslims. Only intellectual Muslims have access to internet and read books and newspapers. Most of Muslims get their education and knowledge from T.V channels and its drama which 90% of them are owned and controlled by Wahabists and dictators. “Hollywood” could change this situation for the favor of America and the civilized world.
Once “Hollywood “raised any Islamic issue in one of its drama, it will be a large debate about it in the entire Muslim World. This debate will expose the fanatics making them lose. This debate also will give the movies success and profits.
B- Enhancing the Website:
Ahl Alquran website was established in 2006 to comprise a worldwide network of Muslim reformers who are dedicated to fighting terrorism ideologically by analyzing their literature and showing its contradiction to the letter and spirit of the Quran.
The website is launched in Arabic and English. It has more than 100 writers, 1500 registered users, and thousands of daily visitors. It has sections for news, polls, discussions, comments, articles, books, and Fatwas. In order for the website to meet its growing international obligations and to enhance the role of the Moderate Islam, it needs to move from being a mainly volunteer enterprise into being a sufficiently financed organization which does not live from month to month. This proposal describes the minimum financial support necessary to continue its development into a program built on a firm foundation.
- Program’s Activities:
In order to achieve the program’s goals, crucial steps have to be undertaken.
This includes:
- Establishing a TV production company with office space, full time professional staff and full marketing strategy. It has the new ideas for the new field of drama. The Quranist Muslim scholars have written more than 22 scenarios, ready to be produced, beside many new ideas for this new field of drama. The Quranists can enrich this new field for two decades at least. This field of drama will cover the Muslim history (14 centuries), the current social and political life of Muslim World in Arabic and Muslim countries and the Muslim communities in America and the West, beside the sacred secret side of the fanatic Muslim extremists. It is not difficult to have Arabic actors and actress. It is not difficult to produce this drama in Arabic then have it subtitled in English and other languages.
- Expanding the current website capacity through recruiting and hiring established will known writers, developing weekly an HTML Email bulletin to reach out for thousands of subscribers around the globe, producing an online audio and video library, and providing questionnaires and online consultations for readers.
V. Program Evaluation:
Achieving the project’s goals can be measured through the website development, which can be evaluated through:
- The dram production company: the number of materials produced in the year, the number of materials sold out and previewed in the TV stations, and the media coverage for the aired materials.
- The website: the umber of visits and page hits made to the website, constant update of materials to the website, number of subscribers to the weekly bulletin, number of comments and replies for questions made by visitors, quality and quantity of citations by other publications, interviews of the Center’s President by other media
VI. Tentative Budget:
- Office space and costs for the TV company: $3.000 per month equals $36.000 per year
- Preparing and producing 10 drama materials: $15.000 each equals $150.000 per year
- Hiring part time professional drama marketing consultant: 3.000 per month equals $36.000
- Hiring website editor: $50,000 annually
- Website Administrator: $45.000 annually
- FICA and Benefits for Employees - $50,000
Total Annual Cost: $ 367.000 .