Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

The leader of the Quranic Muslims in the entire Muslim World

Former assistant professor at Al Azhar University in Egypt

Former visiting fellow at National Endowment for democracy and Harvard Law School

President of the International Quranic Center

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/

 [703] 370 – 8137

To Whom it may concern

Proposal to establish:

Special Arabic Muslim platoon to fight the terrorist Islamists from within Islam, ( war of ideas)

The Intellectual war against terrorism as an imperative duty

The Americans knows a lot about the Iraqi oil, but they know a little about the Iraqi people. That is why they have this problem, not only in Iraq but also in the entire Muslim and Arabic World.

It is 90 % war of ideas but America is fighting it by its military.

War of ideas is a unique in its strategy and tactics. This new war against terrorism will save billions of money and thousands of lives, although it may last for some decades in this century. It is impossible to change people mentality in some years.

(For more details, please look at attachment No: 1)

The fanatics Muslims are actually 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.

It is not hard to have the silent Muslim majority on our side if we can reach them.

It is not hard also 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.

Also, it is very easy to recruit the open-minded Muslims and organize them in this peaceful war against terrorism. Actually, they are eager to be organized and supported by the U.S to get their freedom and to get rid of the terrorist danger.

Who can handle this war of ideas?

The Quranist  Muslimscan do this job.

The Quranist Muslimsare the intellectual Muslims who believe in Islam as the religion of freedom, democracy, tolerance, justice and human rights. They are the perfect professional Muslims in defending the U.S and Israel  in this ideological war against terrorism, but they under the pressure of the Wahabi terrorists and the dictators.

As the founder and the leader of the Arabic Quranic Muslim trends, we have done this peaceful struggle since 1977. That is why we are persecuted since 1987..

After the first wave of arrest in 1987, we got a good platform in the Egyptian and Arabic media and our number has increased rapidly.

After the second wave of arrest in 2000 and 2001, I had to escape to the U.S to begin a new era of our own struggle for peaceful reform from within Islam, defend the peace between Arabs and Israel, and defend U.S, facing the fanatic Wahabists.

Because of our articles on the Arabic on line there were many fatwas were issued against our lives, one of them was documented by the Western media. (Please look at attachment No: 2).

By our limited efforts we have now our International Quranic Center (IQC) near Washington D.C , and our powerful Arabic web site :

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/main.php

Through only one year our website has made a very positive change in recruiting thousands of open minded Muslims, exposing the dangerous Wahabi culture.

Two months ago, our site and center have four projects:

1 - Publishing 107 books, ( one book ) every two weeks, making it  free and available for any one. This project aims to discuss the very sensitive issues in the Muslim tradition.

2 – Make a research committee to make a deep research in the sacred secret side of Fanatic Wahabi Sunni tradition.

3 - Reform Al Azhar of Egypt. Al Azhar is the oldest and the biggest university in the entire world. It is (the Vatican) of the entire Muslim Sunni world. It is the religious authority of about one billion Muslims around the world. Al Azhar now is upholding the Wahabism and the bloody culture of Muslim Brothers and Hamas. To reform it from within Islam using the Egyptian code itself, means we can terminate the terrorist danger.

4 - Establish the peaceful culture in the Middle East and to convince the Arab masses to recognize Israel as a neighbor not as enemy.

We have begun the first project by publishing three books. This project was tackled in Egypt by my half brother Abdellateef Saied and some of his assistants. To stop this project the Egyptian regime has arrested them since May 28^TH.

By your help we will not give up.

We have also these projects in this war of ideas which need your support:

1 -Reform the Islamic mosques and schools in the U.S. to defend America in the name of Islam.

2 - High Institute for Islamic Research and Reform.

3 – Islamic academy for enlightening the American Muslim scholars and Imams.

4 - Department of Online War.

5 – Department for dramatizing Muslim history and tradition.

To have this job done we need a strong company.

American Profit Company and its mission:

This American company

Americamust have its own powerful agency to win this war peacefully and intellectually and perfectly. This will confirm America as the only super power in this century.

This American agency will be specialized in Islamic cultural fields to produce and publish and broadcast books, drama and television programs in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and English languages throughout the Muslim World and the Muslim communities in the U.S and the West.

Its production must reach all Muslims in every street, every mosque, on line, and in theaters and homes.

5- In some details: What is the mission of this proposed American agency? And how it will handle its mission?

Briefly, this agency has two new expressions in handling its mission: Amricanizing Islam and Islamizing this war. Amricanizing Islam means to preach the core of Islam among Muslims. When you read the Arabic Quran according to its terminology you will find Islam has the same American values. Islamizing this war means to recruit the intellectual Muslims to handle it by the support and the control of this American agency.

The proposed agency needs the following departments:

A) Department of International Affairs, to organize the Quranic Muslim groups in the entire World, to give them assignments, and to recruit other intellectual Muslims. This department will hold regular conferences to help the agency in handling its mission overseas. 

B) –Department of Islamic Reform:

1. For the Islamic mosques in the U.S. to defend democratic values in the name of Islam)

This will enable the U.S. to drive extremists out of the American mosques, making them advocate American patriotism as part of core Islamic values of faith.

2. Reform the Islamic Schools in the U.S.

It’s useless to reform their religious curriculum; the only way is to present to them alternative Islamic subjects, to preach the Islamic values of Peace, tolerance, justice, freedom and democracy.

This department will provide these subjects as available materials for these schools, calling on the schools to reconsider this in their teaching. It will also publish these subjects calling on the American Muslim community to discuss them and to be an active part in pressing the Islamic schools to uphold them instead of the fanatic teachings. 

If they refuse, then it will be a unique opportunity to discuss this issue in the public eye of the media.  A public debate may disclose some absent facts concerning the secret relationship between some Islamic schools and other fanatic organizations in the Muslim World.

In such a debate, they will be faced with these important questions: If you really believe that Islam is the religion of great values, why do you ignore this in your courses? If you claim you did not have the ability to write it in your courses, and information to this end has now become available, why do you continue to refuse to uphold it in your courses? If you are against the fanatic culture, why do you keep it in your courses?

The final goal is to make these Islamic schools serving Islam compatible with the United States nation in its war against terrorism.

C: Department of Publishing

It should publish books and newsletters in Arabic and English languages and to distribute them in all the American Muslim mosques, schools and stores and communities and publishing it also online.

Publishing these books and newsletter aims to:

1- Expose and disclose the dark side of the fanatic tradition and the big contradiction between it and the real teachings of Islam.

2- Recruit open minded Muslim Americans to work against the fanatics inside and outside the U.S.

3- Through the discussions and the reactions of those who control the Muslim communities and schools and mosques, it will be easy to define the terrorist Imams and their followers in order to free the American mosques from their control.

D Higher Institute for Islamic Research and Reformin which open-minded Muslims will be trained to be Imams, not only in the mosques but also in the Islamic schools and to work as Imams for Muslims in prisons and army instead of these Wahabi fanatic Imams. It is also necessary to train some other brilliant free minded Muslims to infiltrate the fanatic groups inside the mosques to pave the way for taking over them in the right time.

This high Islamic institute will be also a think tank specialized in the Islamic fields and the other secret sacred sides of the Wahabism. It will tackle researches and assignments for the American agencies.

F- Arabic Libraryspecialized in the secret sacred scriptures and texts and the hidden manuscripts of the Sunni Wahabi cult. It is said that the Saudi agents in Egypt have stolen many of these unpublished manuscripts from the very Old Al Azhar library and the official Egyptian Library. We need copies in our proposed library to serve us in this intellectual war. Using these sacred secret books will be an atomic intellectual bomb against them.

G- Department of Online War

It is painful to say, that the greatest super power in the human history has not single Arabic web site to defend itself and to clear its image, while it is usually insulted and attacked severely every day in the Arabic on line web sites. The Wahabists have a jungle of these Arabic websites. Their sole mission is to brainwash Muslims against America. This department will be supervised by Arabic experts who will maintain this online war and has a team work inside and out side of America to keep commenting on all the articles and the books that insulting America on line and in the local media overseas.

It also will hold many conferences to :1- Explore this new kind of war.2-Analyze the fanatic websites, and how they brainwash the young Muslims and prepare them to be suicide bombers, how they recruit them , and how they raise fund.3- How to face them. 4- How to deal with “Al Fatwa”- the verdict or the rule given by the Sheikh – as the most dangerous weapon against them. 5- Translating and presenting this unknown field - the Arabic fanatic web sites - to the Americans. 6-Expose the so – called moderate Muslims and sheikhs who have two discourses, deceiving the West and the U.S. while they are working for the terrorism.7-Establish many web sites to serve in this war.9- Organize the secular and other open minded Arab scholars and their web sites to be in our side against the terrorism. 10- Establishing new Muslim generation specialized in this online war.

H: New Arabic Satellite Channels for multi media productions of Movies, T.V serials and other programs

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. To defeat them , the magic word here is “Hollywood”. By drama and few T.V satellites the U.S can win 90% of this war.

Proponents of extremism and terrorism are not just clerks or imams. The most dangerous are script writers who compose historical, Islamic, and ordinary dramas. In their movie and soap-opera scripts, they usually  promote terrorism through subtle ideas which they convey indirectly and effectively to the conscious and subconscious of viewers, shaping their ideas and outlook while enjoying the show without any discussion or protest.

Most Arab countries monopolize the media, including local and satellite TV channels, to serve a ruling dictator and the Wahabism.  Egypt and Saudi Arabia are working together in promoting the Wahabism.

When small Qatar set up its anti American Al jazeera channel with a reasonable margin of freedom and independence, the satellite channel has become famous in Arab countries and the whole world.

The success of Al Aljazeera motivated the USA to set up Al-Hurra (the Free) Arabic channel. When the United States thought about establishing Al-Hurra Channel, Arab regimes and advocates of terrorism were caught by horror. Yet despite all the facilities and financial assistance given to Al -Hurra, the American channel turned into something similar to a local Lebanese channel, without any impact.Al-Hurra was born dead, when it ought to have been born a giant to confront the intense hatred for the United States in the Arab region, spread a culture of democracy in the Middle East, and uproot the Wahabi culture.

It has become imperative to establish more free and independent TV channels to address the Islamic world preaching the American Islam against the Wahabism. The address must be well-studied and void of any direct preaching or demagogue presentation. Ideas must be presented with such ease and subtlety as to persuade viewers.

Establishing TV and drama production companies                                                                                                   

If the proposed channels have a unique message to convey, then they require specific drama and cultural program production companies which will be unique in their production in drama and T.V programs.

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. 

TV programs are generally popular and effective. We have our issues that have not been presented or discussed yet by other channels, because they are not bold enough to raise them. Even if they do, they are not qualified to run the talk.

Human rights in Islam have not been frankly and objectively discussed. They cannot discuss questions like these: if Islam is really a religion of peace, why has terrorism been cultivated among Muslims? How has terrorism come to be inextricably associated with Islam? If Islam is valid for all times and places, why have Muslims lagged behind other nations? And why is there a call for ancestral fundamentalism? If Islam is a religion of freedom, tolerance, democracy, and compassion, why do Muslims have despotic regimes? Why do they reject democracy and advocate radicalism and fanaticism? Hundreds of questions like these need to be answered in free and objective arguments in talk shows run by real thinkers, and not by people who promote superstition, ignorance, fanaticism and backwardness.

In short, it is necessary to raise the issues that have remained undisclosed in the Islamic literature for ages, including edicts, rulings, legislations, and interpretations that contradict the core of Islam and all its values and virtues.  A daring and scientific discussion of these issues will ensure prompt success for such programs, especially when discussions are based on freedom of opinion, thinking, and belief, tolerance, and respecting the right of others to differ and disagree, without holding them infidels, traitors, or contemptible. There are other taboo issues which the Arabic TV satellite channels usually neglect in order to avoid collision with Arab old despotism. Among these issues are the corruption, the real history of the Saudis and their fanatic Wahabism, and torture in the Arab Muslim World.

Finally

This proposed agency by these departmentswill defeat terrorists and their Wahabi culture at a very cheap cost and giving the world more safety.

Ahmed Subhy Mansour

I announce the second project which aims to search the sacred secret side of Fanatic Wahabi Sunni tradition

I talked with my people in Egypt to start preparing the third project

, and finally the Egyptian regime arrested and kidnapped four of our people and intimidating our twenty four Quranic scholars and their families in Egypt.

While we are standing alone defending America and Jewish in this “on line war’ and “war of ideas “, America has not single Arabic web site to defend its image or its policy. The Arabic web sites are a wide jungle; most of them are controlled by the fanatic Wahhabists. By this on line war, the fanatics recruit and brainwash thousands of Muslims and raise fund for their cause. They also control the mosques even in the U.S and the West; control the media and the T.V channels and the drama productions.

We need your help to defeat them and to undeceive the majority of Muslims.

2- Muslim Brothers in Egypt win the elections.

Without real political religious reform, they will take over Egypt after one decade. In the coming decade they will use democracy – without real reform – to root their influence in the society and to control the people’s mentality completely. It is the same way when they control their victims making them suicide bombers. They need about ten years to have this “Tamkeen” or the complete control over the mentality of the masses. When they have some hundreds Thousands of Suicide bombers they will take over Egypt and destroy the Middle East.

If Muslim Brothers are invited to rule Egypt now, they will refuse it. They are not qualified to be accountable before the people. They do not believe in democracy. They believe in “Al Hakemeyya” which is equal to the “Divine rights of Kings “in the European Middle aged culture. Accordingly, they have to wait mostly one decade until they control the people mentality by the name of Islam. Then they will rule according to Al Hakemeyya, not democracy.

Religious and political reform is their real enemies. So, sooner or later they will have a political compromise with Mubarak regime. They are together against any kind of reform.  Mubarak needs their support to have his son Gamal succeed him, and this suits the Muslim Brothers as long they will use the support of the Egyptian regime in controlling the religious cultural lives of Muslims to pave their way from now. It is their perfect opportunity to prepare the Egyptians to be their slaves after ten years.

It is possible to save Egypt and defeat the Muslim Brothers by rooting the real political religious reform.

The Quranic Muslim thinkers can do it if they have your support.

3 : Reform Muslim communities in America and the West:

Most of the American Muslims here are influenced and brainwashed by the fanatic Wahhabi culture. This Wahhabi bloody culture is usually taught in Arabic language in the Islamic schools and Islamic mosques in the American soil. It is must to reform the Islamic schools and mosques in the U.S to make them defending America in the name of Islam, not insulting America in the name of Islam.

The Quranic Muslims can do this by the American support.

The main missions

A- School for Islamic research:

The elder Quranic Muslims are experts in all different Islamic fields. Islamic studies has many main fields: The Quran, Muslim traditions which has many sciences and many sects, Muslim Jurisprudence which has many different schools, Muslim cults and their inner branches { The Wahhabism is a minute branch inside the Sunni cult} and Muslim history and civilization. All these fields belong to one main field which talks about Islam and Muslims in the past. Muslim World in our time is another wide field. Studying Islam and Islamic fields in the U.S is a mixture of all these things in a very ignorant ways which do not cover any thing.  America needs to cover all the Islamic fields in the past and in modern time. This gives America a good understanding of its war against terrorism. The school for Islamic research will play this role generally.

However, this school for Islamic research has other main jobs:

• Give advice and counseling for any American agency in the field of terrorism. 
• Publish articles, books and researches on line to be available for all Arabic speakers. These writings will expose the secret sacred side of the fanatic tradition, proving the contradiction between it and Islam.
• Analyzing the fanatic Wahhabi discourse and mentality to benefit the American agencies.
• Using “Al Fatwa” – the religious verdict- against the terrorists them selves. Al Fatwa is the most dangerous weapon in this war of idea. According to it, the religious Muslims usually shape their lives. The Wahhabi fanatics use this “Al Fatwa” in brainwashing the masses against America. If the Quranic scholars have the American protection and support, they can use the “Al Fatwa” against the terrorists.

B- Institute for education:

 The American Muslim community, the Islamic schools and mosques in the U.S, and Muslims in the American prisons and in the American army and different agencies need an open minded Muslim teachers, preachers and imams and /or “chapels’ to educate them how to defend and love America in the name of Islam, not to insult America by misusing Islam.

The new Iraqi army needs to be taught from within Islam it’s a real Jihad to defend democracy and to be grateful to the U.S.

This institute for education can do this mission. The board of the center will bring the Arabic Muslim Americans to be educated and graduated from this institute to serve America in Iraq and inside American agencies.

C: Squad of on line war:

It mission is to fight the fanatic Muslims on line and to defend the American image. This squad will face any attack on America in any Arabic newspaper or web site, or pal talk, defending America and disclosing and exposing the fanatic Muslims.

*The school for Islamic research and the institute for education will work together in many projects according to the supervision of the board of the center

Sooner or lateryou will have to handle this intellectual war using Muslims like us. No other Muslims have our expertise and our knowledge and our commitment .Now, you have us as the best Muslims to fight for you this new kind of war, to defeat your enemy and to save thousands of lives and billions of money.

Secondly: How

All these missions could be done perfectly if the elders of the Quranic scholars have a secure shelter in the U.S and have the access to wage this intellectual war against terrorism.

This needs establishing a camp to host them here in the U.S  to handle this “Special Arabic Muslim platoon to defend America and Israel in the war of idea”

The mission of this center is to bring the elder Quranic scholars to here and supervise them.

Let’s explain this in some details

Who are the elders of the Quranic trend?

The Quranic people are about ten thousands in Egypt only, but their elders are twelve four scholars and thinkers with their families, means about 70 people including their wives, mothers and siblings. Those Quranist elders are three generations : Leaders and thinkers who are over 50 years old, scholars and researchers over 25 years old, then kids and young men who are prepared to continue the mission in future.

Most of those Quranists have been persecuted in Egypt since 1987. They are open minded Muslims but the Egyptian regime and the fanatic Wahhabists accuse them to be the ardent enemies of Islam. Because of being branded and persecuted and under the pressure of the Egyptian State and the terrorists, they maintain private social life and stay away from others to save their lives. In spite of persecution, they usually use internet secretly in preaching this new version of Islam. By their efforts, the numbers of the Quranic Muslims is increasing in Egypt and other Muslim Arabic countries. If they enjoy freedom and have proper access they make this world safer and help the American interest and the Israeli future.

As the founder of the Quranic Muslims, I have raised and educated those elders since 1977, and we work together by internet. It is necessary to bring them here to the U.S, giving them shelter, protection and access to handle this war against terrorism.

I usually receive hundreds of emails from the Quranic people from the entire world, but those Quranic elders are the only people whom I trust personally. Most of them are my family.

The Egyptian secret services has an access to all our network and information after they have arrested my half brother and three of his assistants, and confiscated their computers and papers. All the thousands Quranic Egyptian  people are so scared that they stay stay away from their leaders.

We need to free the four arrested people and to bring the twenty four families to the U.S, and giving them shelter and facilities to handle this war of ideas.

How to bring them from Egypt to here?

We need an official help and proper fund.

We need an official help to release the arrested people and to give American visas to the 70 Quranist people.

We need enough money for them to travel from Egypt to here, and to buy a ranch in which they can live far from other Muslims here, and to devote their lives for their mission.

Housing and working

Before bringing them here, it is better to prepare housing for them to maintain their privacy far from the other Muslim community. It is must for them to handle their work confidently inside their homes. This includes writings articles and research, on line war, and counseling.

Part of their work is educating and preparing open minded imams and chapels. This needs a separate institute in a big city not far from their houses.

Coming here, they will be divided into different groups according to their fields and abilities. Generally, every Quranic family is centered on the father who is a senior Muslim scholars specialized in some aspects of the mentality and the tradition of the terrorism. The siblings of those senior scholars are two kinds: Youth and kids under twenty years.

Youth are those who have graduated from the universities. They are perfect assistants to the senior scholars. Some of them are experts in on line war and internet and soft ware. The young Quranic kids will help as interim after school. All the Quranic siblings are eager to be activists in fighting the fanatic terrorists. Those Quranic siblings will be the next generation in defending America in the future.

.

For example, please look at attachment number 1.

Finally

I am ready any time to discuss this proposal.

Dr. Sheikh Ahmed Subhy Mansour

My C.V is in attachment number 2.

Attachment Number 1:

Examples of projects of the Arabic Muslim platoon

1- Reform the Islamic mosques in the U.S. to defend the U.S in the name of Islam

According to one recent survey, there are 1,209 mosques in America; most of them were founded in the last 20 years, making the Islam of Wahabism one of the fastest growing religions in the United States. By 2010 it is expected to become the second largest faith practiced in the country. There are about 200 Muslim schools, about 500 Sunday Islamic schools, and six schools of Islamic higher learning in America

The fanatics Wahabi Imams are using these mosques in fighting the U.S. within its home territory. Briefly this Project – if it has the real support – will enable the U.S. to drive extremists out of these mosques in only five years, making them advocate American patriotism as part of the Islamic faith.

This project needs two steps in the same time:

Publishing a newsletterin Arabic and English languages and distributing them in all the American Muslim mosques, schools and stores and communities, and publishing it also on line.

This newsletter aims to:

* Expose and disclose the dark side of the fanatic tradition and the big contradiction between it and the real teachings of Islam.

*Recruit open minded Muslims to work against the fanatics inside and outside the U.S.

* Through the discussions and the reactions of those who control the Muslim communities and schools and mosques, it will be easy to define the terrorist Imams and their followers in order to free these mosques from their control.

2- Reform The Islamic Schools in the U.S.

These schools reflect the dominant Muslim Wahhabi culture, not only by concentrating on hating non- Muslims, but by retaining the values of the culture of the Middle Ages. As a result, these schools are ignoring the great values of Islam, which are the same values of Western Civilization.

It’s useless to reform their religious curriculum; the only way towards reform is to present to them alternative Islamic subjects, the neglected Islamic values of Peace, tolerance, justice, freedom and democracy.

We will provide these subjects as available materials for these schools, calling on the schools to reconsider this in their teaching. We will also publish these subjects in our newsletters calling on the American Muslim community to discuss them and to be an active part in pressing the Islamic schools to uphold them instead of the fanatic teachings. 

If they refuse, then it will be a unique opportunity to discuss this issue in the public eye of the media.  A public debate may disclose some absent facts concerning the secret relationship between some Islamic schools and other fanatic organizations in the Muslim World.

In such a debate, they will be faced with these important questions: If you really believe that Islam is the religion of great values, why do you ignore this in your courses? If you claim you did not have the ability to write it in your courses, and information to this end has now become available, why do you continue to refuse to uphold it in your courses? If you are against the fanatic culture, why do you keep it in your courses?

The final goal is to make these Islamic schools serving Islam compatible with the United States nation in its war against terrorism.

3- Conferences for Online War

It is painful to say, that the greatest super power in the human history has not single Arabic web site to defend itself and to clear its image, while it is usually insulted and attacked severely every day in the Arabic on line web sites. The Wahabists have a jungle of these Arabic websites. Their sole mission is to brainwash Muslims against America. This project will be supervised by Arabic experts who will maintain this online war and has a team work inside and out side of America to keep commenting on all the articles and the books that insulting America on line and in the local media overseas.

It also will hold many conferences to :

1- Explore this new kind of war.

2-Analyze the fanatic websites, and how they brainwash the young Muslims and prepare them to be suicide bombers, how they recruit them, and how they raise fund.

3- How to face them.

4- How to deal with “Al Fatwa”- the verdict or the rule given by the Sheikh – as the most dangerous weapon against them.

5- Translating and presenting this unknown field - the Arabic fanatic web sites - to the Americans.

6- Expose the so – called moderate Muslims who are deceiving the U.S. and working for the terrorism.

7-Establish many web sites to serve in this war.

8- Organize the secular and other open minded Arab scholars and their web sites to be in our side against the terrorism.

9- Establishing new Muslim generation specialized in this online war.

Attachment number 2

Dr. Sheikh Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Part of my C.V

In Al Azhar ( 1973- 1987 )

I received a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Muslim History from Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.  I was an assistant professor at Al-Azhar from 1981 to 1987.   I have spent the last twenty-five years of my life researching, writing, and speaking against radical intolerant interpretations of Islam, including those advanced by followers of Wahhabism, which is a radical school within the Sunni sect of Muslims.  I have written over twenty-four books and approximately 500 articles in Arabic on the history of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, critiques of the concepts of Jihad and articles on bigotry and dictatorship in Muslim thought, and the reform of Al Azhar and the Egyptian education. As an assistant professor at Al Azhar University, I wrote several books designed to reform religious education.  I advocated that the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam had twisted the true tolerant message of Islam as articulated in the Quran, which advocated peace, justice, and upholding human rights.  Because of the Saudi influence, Al-Azhar University accused me of being an enemy of Islam.  I was tried in a religious court and expelled on March 17, 1987.  Seven months later, the Egyptian government imprisoned me for two months.

After leaving Al Azhar (1987 – 2001)

Notwithstanding my arrest, I committed myself to promoting the advancement of tolerance, civil rights and democracy in Egypt through various forums, including:

In the early 1990’s, I collaborated with Forag Foda to establish a new political party in Egypt called “Mostakbal” translated as the “Future Party”, which was dedicated to a secular democratic state.

In the 1990’s, I was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, which worked to protect citizens from human rights offenses of the government and religious groups within the government.

In the 1993, I also founded the Popular Movement for Confronting Terrorism, which provided aid to mostly Christians in Upper Egypt who were victims of fanatical religious zealots.

From 1996 to 2000, I worked with Dr. Sa’ad Eddin Ebraheem, who was the Director of the Ibn Khaldoin Center in Cairo, Egypt.  The Ibn Khaldoin Center was a unique organization dedicated to advocating secular democratic values, calling for religious educational reform, eliminating the persecution of minorities and eliminating fanatical fundamentalism that led to religious persecution.

Due to the fanatical religious culture in Egypt, each of these ventures was met with hostility and violence.  For example, Wahhabi religious leaders at Al-Azhar issued a fatwa, a religious ruling, calling for my and others assassination for trying to advance a secular democratic party.  In June 1992, my friend Forag Foda was assassinated by Wahhabi zealots, who shot him in a Cairo street.  In addition, as a result of advocating tolerance, democracy, and upholding human rights, my life and family were placed in danger.  For example, some of my Quranic friends and members of my family were arrested.  Finally, I was forced to escape to the United States in 2001.

In the U.S (2001 - )

In June 2002, I was granted political asylum in the United States. Once in the United States, I continued my involvement in educating individuals about Wahhabi ideology and how it negatively impacts democracy in the Middle East. 

In 2002, I was a Regan-Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C. where I performed my first English research on the roots of democracy in Islam. 

From June 2003 to May 2004, by the help of “Scholar at risk program”, I was a visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.

November 2003- March 2004.Expert in Islamic fields at Graduate Theological Foundation- Tutorial Faculty.

March 2004 – May 2004, Expert witness in Islam and Muslim fanatic culture for the U.S Department of Justice. U.S Attorney, District of Idaho

September 2004 - Advisory board Member of: Free Muslim Coalition against terrorism in Washington D.C.

September 2004 - The founder and the Interim President of Center for Islamic Pluralism [CIP] in Washington D.C.

October 2004 -Founder and member board of: Citizens for Peace and Tolerance - Promoting a Hate-Free America, in Boston. In 2003, I Discover the Radical Views Preached by Wahhabis in Egypt Being Advanced at the Islamic Society of Boston, the fanatic organization supported by Sheikh Yousof Al Qaradawy, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brother. This ISBopenly preached the same type of message of hatred of Jews, intolerance, and violence that I had struggled against in Egypt. In the fall of 2004, I (a Muslim scholar) along with Dennis Hale (an Episcopal Lay Eucharistic Minister) and Steven Cohen (a Jewish businessman) formed Citizens for Peace and Tolerance (“CPT”) to raise our concerns that the Islamic Society of Boston (“ISB”) and its proposed mosque and cultural center in Roxbury, Massachusetts (the “ISB Project”) may promote religious hatred and intolerance.  As part of the CPT, I, along with Dennis Hale and Steven Cohen, spoke at the CPT press conference held on October 5, 2004 to raise our concerns about the ISB Project and the ideology of the ISB leaders.  We also issued a press release at that time.  At our press conference and in our press release, we made it very clear that we wanted the Boston political establishment to become involved in reviewing the ISB’s leadership, the ideology behind the ISB Project, and to demand honest answers from the ISB.

In October 2005, I was invited by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to submit written testimony addressing the following questions: What is Wahhabism? Is Saudi Arabia spreading Wahhabism throughout the world? Is Saudi Arabia spreading Wahhabism in American mosques? What should be done to stop the spread of Wahhabism in America?  On October 25, 2005, I submitted my written testimony to the U.S. Senate committee.

Since I have left Harvard Law School (May 2004) until now, I have no job. However, I am busy in writing weekly articles and researches, publishing them in the Arabic internet. In my writings, I usually defend the U.S, and face the terrorist religious culture from within Islam and call for reforming the Muslim World and the Muslim communities in the West and the in the U.S. Some of my writings are published in English in these web sites:

http://www.islamicpluralism.org/texts/openforum.htm

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19178

Googling my name gives more details.

( Attachment No: 1 )

As we face our terrorist Wahabi enemy in this post-Cold War era, it becomes clear that we are now fighting World War IV. This new war, without a doubt, is a new kind of war. We can summarize its new aspects with one concrete example: the suicide bomber. He is eager to blow himself up in order to kill as many innocent people as possible from among Christians, Jews and, yes, other Muslims. Young men are usually inspired by their dreams of the future and of enjoying their lives, but the suicide bomber is motivated only by the thought of being a martyr and he is convinced that virgins are waiting for him in paradise to reward him for blowing himself up amongst “infidels”.

The suicide bomber is a human bomb walking the streets ready to destroy other people, any time and any place. It is very difficult to recognize him and to predict where and when he will strike.

With this new weapon -- the human bomb -- our terroristMuslim enemy has neutralized the most horrifying weapon: the nuclear bomb. But it has neutralized it only in our hands of course.

This War’s Ingredients:

1-The weapon is the suicide bomber.

2-The ammunition is the Muslim tradition and religion.

3-The factories of ammunitions are the mosques, the Islamic centers in the West and in the U.S, the Muslim system of educations and the Arabic web sites.

4-The battle field is the mentality of all Muslims.

5-The soldiers and the generals of war are fanatic extreme Muslim scholars and the Sheikhs.

6- The very nature of this war is 100% intellectual-ideological religious war.

7-Who will win this kind of war? The terrorists.

8-Why:Because the U.S is using its army in 90% of this war.

The Crucial Reassessment:

1-How can the U.S win this war and save thousands of lives and billions of money? 

 By using the same tactic of the intellectual-ideological religious war.

2-How could the U.S use this tactic?

By responding to every enemy weapon to neutralize it:

The weapon [suicide bomber] must be convinced that if he kills innocent people or himself he will be the enemy of Islam.

The ammunitions [Muslim tradition and religion] must be used against the terrorist themselves.

The factories of ammunitions: [Mosques, Islamic centers in the West and the U. S and the educational system in Muslim World]are under the control of U.S. allies. These factories of ammunitions in the Muslim World must be reformed in the name of Islam by the pressure of the U.S, and the U.N. -- along with real political reform. The mosques and the so-called Islamic schools in the U.S must be reformed, and the Arabic fanatic web sites must be faced. Individuals such as myself are willing to do this if we receive American support.

The battle field of this war will be the mentality of all Muslims.

The soldiers and the generals of this war against terroristsare people like me who are free Muslim scholars and sheikhs. We are willing to fight but need the support of the U.S.

The very nature of this war against terrorists: A large percentage of it can be – and must be -- intellectual war.

Who will win this kind of war?

The U.S. will win it.

Why?

Because the fanatic terrorist Muslims have their power by using the name of Islam. We must explain from within Islam the contradiction between Islam and the bloody culture of the terrorists.

Attachment No. 2

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/03/muslim_scholars_in_us_push_for_change/?page=full

© Copyright2005 The New York Times Company

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http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=041806B

Death Lists and Dissenters

By Stephen Schwartz

Allegations of "apostasy" among Muslims are presently a topic for global controversy. To Westerners, apostasy from Islam seems to denote conversion to Christianity, since the persecution of Muslims who have changed their religion has gained media attention -- most recently in the case of a Christian convert, Abdul Rahman, who was threatened by a local judge in Afghanistan. It is also widely believed in the West that apostasy from Islam is invariably punished by death.

Both views are distorted. The phenomenon of public abandonment of Islam for Christianity did not become widespread until the last 150 years or so, and cases have remained rare enough that there is no substantial body of Islamic jurisprudence dealing with it. In general, apostasy from Islam was defined in the past as denial of foundational concepts of the religion -- more as heresy than as a change of faiths.

Shafi'i Sunni jurisprudence, a school of shari'a which remains widespread in Arab countries and Southeast Asia, defines apostasy as straying from the religion, rather than leaving it or joining another, and recommends repeated mercy and opportunities to correct alleged errors. The Maliki school of jurisprudence, which is established in northwest Africa, is severe on those who change religions, demanding capital punishment. This may reflect the history of formerly-Islamic Spain where, during periods when territory passed from Muslim to Christian rule, Muslims who had converted from Christianity to Islam returned to their earlier faith.

I have personally and extensively observed Islamic customs in which the faith of Muhammad has fused with Christian elements (in the Balkans), Buddhism and shamanism (in Central Asia), and local folk religious traditions (in Indonesia). In the first two cases, syncretism or religious merging attracted no criticism from mainstream Muslim clerics, who considered porous borders between faiths a natural phenomenon. In Indonesia, however, Muslim clerics influenced by the Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia have preached against such variations from the standard Sunni way, and recently have incited violence against those who diverge from their path.

However, under the great Muslim empires, accusations of apostasy were often pretexts for the suppression of political and intellectual dissent, and that is how such charges are typically employed today in such countries as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Pakistan. The Prophet Muhammad is said to have warned against accusations of apostasy, according to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is prevalent from the Balkans to India. The Prophet, it is said, opined that when one Muslim accuses another of disbelief, the accuser is the unbeliever.

The accusation of apostasy or unbelief remained mainly a political matter until the 18^th century and the rise of the Wahhabis, who practiced takfir or accusation of apostasy against all Muslims who rejected Wahhabi doctrines, but especially against Shias and Sufis, or spiritual Muslims. They most certainly followed such accusations with death sentences, despoliation of property, and reduction of captive women to servitude.

Such terms have now appeared on the margin of American Islamic discourse -- literally: "We have issued our commands to the soldiers of God to worship God by pouring out their blood and burning their homes [i.e. of the supposed apostates]... Their women are to be abducted; their children enslaved, and their money confiscated."

This brutal idiom appeared in a claim of apostasy and threat of death issued on April 10 by a group, apparently in Egypt, called "Supporters of God's Messenger [Muhammad]." Included in the list of those condemned was Imam Ahmed Subhy Mansour, a Virginia-based Egyptian Islamic dissident who is also a founder, with me, of the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), a think-tank supporting moderate Islam.

Subhy Mansour is not an apostate from Islam. He has not renounced the religion or denied any of its essential precepts. He is a critic of Sunni traditions. I do not agree with some of his views on the history of Islam, but these opinions have nothing to do with basic matters of faith, and therefore cannot be considered the basis for a charge of apostasy. Subhy Mansour's views are controversial but certainly within the norms of Islamic debate.

Commentaries on the April 10 death list have been published by other CIP founders including M. Zuhdi Jasser in Phoenix, previously a victim of Wahhabi ideological aggression, as reported in TCS, and CIP Canada representative Salim Mansur, a journalist; and here.

Given the Sunni-Shia split and Wahhabi influence, accusations of apostasy have led to horrific loss of life in Iraq, and a movement has begun among Sunnis to ban the practice of takfir. Charges that all Muslims except Wahhabis are unbelievers are more than a theological position; they also promote the elitist mentality that every extremist movement needs to recruit and maintain itself.

Nevertheless, issues of conversion from Islam to Christianity remain a major issue in the threatened clash of civilizations. Aside from general religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, which is an immediate necessity, a global Islamic consensus with contemporary attitudes about freedom of religious conscience will have to be developed by Muslim authorities in a long series of colloquies inspired by the utmost seriousness and intellectual weight. There is no simple answer to these questions. Still, the intent of the April 10 death list was not to clarify religious views, but to intimidate dissenters. This must not be tolerated by Western authorities, who must assist those threatened by such aggression, especially those residing in the democracies.

http://www.canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/15821.shtml

Islamists demand killing of two Canadians

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Posted by Center for Islamic Pluralism on 23:48:21 2006/04/12

Will this be the acid test for the new Conservative government? Will they be crippled by political correctness that pretends that Islamic extremists are no more of a threat than Catholic extremists, or will they move decisively to protect Canadians from these Islamofascists? Will the Canadian government and media listen to Haroon Siddiqui or to Salim Mansur? We have Islamic fanatics issuing fatwas that call for the killing of innocent people around the world, including two named Canadians. What will the Canadian government do about it?

The Center for Islamic Pluralism vigorously protests the dissemination of death threats against a group of Arab intellectuals living in the West, including one of our founders, Imam Ahmed Subhy Mansour, and the distinguished liberal social critic Saad Eddin Ibrahim. We commit our utmost efforts to protection of those at risk.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
Executive Director
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC, USA

The text of the death threat follows, with web addresses for Arab-language sites that discuss the incident:

"Statement Number 1 from the Supporters of God's Messenger, Muhammad peace be upon him, to unbelievers, apostates, atheists and those who may ally with them.

"God, Allah almighty. said 'Say to the Unbelievers, if they desist their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already.' and also said 'O Prophet! strive hard against the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be firm against them. Their abode is Hell, an evil refuge indeed.' And the messenger of God also said 'He who changes his religion, kill him'. [i] [See CIP Note below.]

"We, the Supporters of God's Messenger, after discussion and consultation with our brothers, the leaders of the Islamic groups and organizations in the Muslim lands, and after they were informed of the verdicts that we reached in our consultation committee, concerning the expulsion of the leaders of apostasy [from the community of Islam], along with those who publicly deny our prophetic tradition, and who also call on others to join in their unbelief. After they departed from Islam and the Muslim umma, they have publicly supported leaders of unbelief, the worshipers of the cross, the Christians with whom they attend conferences, helping them against our spiritual leaders, and even demanding for them the right of ruling over our Muslim lands. Also, they support and cooperate with the sons of pigs and monkeys [i.e. Jews] against our brothers in our homeland of our Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"The consultation committee decided to give those who were found guilty of apostasy, unbelief, and denial of the Islamic established facts, three days' time for them to announce their repentance and disavow their writings in denial of the traditions of the our prophet and to repent their support of the countries of unbelief and their rulers. They must announce this repentance publicly in the newspapers that they write in, and never to return to these writings and deeds again. If they do not respond to God and His messenger, we will hunt them in every place and every time. They are not far from the swords of the righteous, they are closer to our swords than to our shoes, they are under our eyes and ears (surveillance) day and night, we are totally aware of the their hiding places, residences, schools of their sons, and the times when their wives are alone at home. We have issued our commands to the soldiers of God to worship God by pouring out their blood and burning their homes.

"We thank God that most of these heads of unbelief and atheism do not live in Islamic lands, which will not be polluted by their rotten blood. They live in the lands of unbelief, the homelands of those who worship the cross and idols, countries like America, Switzerland, Canada and Italy. If they were in Islamic countries, we would wash the places in which they are killed seven times, once with dust to purify the Islamic homeland of their rotten blood. Their women are to be abducted; their children enslaved, and their money confiscated .This applies the ruling of Islam in handing over the possessions of the unbelievers to those who kill them.

"These are the names of those sentenced to be killed by the command of the consultation committee, if they do not repent three times before the end of three days, beginning April 10, 2006:

Ahmed Subhy Mansour, leader of the Ahl ul-Quran, who escaped to the United States, the land of unbelief, with his sons; Muhammad, Sherif, Amir, Hosam, Sameh, Moner, and his wife.
Othman Muhammad Ali, leader of the Ahl ul-Quran in the Islamic land of Egypt, who escaped to Canada, the land of unbelief, and his wife.
Gamal Al-Banna, Egypt.[ii] [See CIP Note below.]
Abdelfattah Assaker, Egypt.
Mohamed Shebl, Egypt.
Mohamed Saied El Moshtohry, Egypt.
Mohamed Saied El Ashmawy, Egypt.
Hassan Ahmed Omar, Egypt.
Abdellatif Saied, Egypt.
Ayman Mohamed Abdelrahman, Egypt.
Waleed Mohamed Abdelrahman, Egypt.
Taha Helal, Egypt,
Khaled Helal, Italy.
Essam Nafiea, Egypt.
Ahmed Shaaban, Egypt.
Amr Abu Rassaa, Jordan
Ramadan Abdel Rahman Ali, Jordan.
Mohamed Shaalan, Egypt.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the owner of Ibn Zionist (Ibn Khaldun) center, Egypt.
Amr Ismaiel, Egypt.
Mohamed El Badri, Egypt.
Abdel Karim Soliman, Egypt.
Salah Mohsen, Canada.
Shaker Elnabulsi, USA
Nedal Na'eisa, USA.
Samir Hassan Ibrahim, Syria.
Wafaa Sultan, USA.
Adli Abadeer, Switzerland.
Magdi Khalil, USA
Zakareya Botros, Holland.
Nahed Metwalli, Holland.
Alafeef Al-Akhdar, France.
Faten Nour, USA.

Signed by: Abu Dhar El Makdishi, media amir (commander)"

Translation by Center for Islamic Pluralism

Arabic-language websites:

http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2006/04/09/22700.htm
http://www.elaph.com/elaphweb/ElaphWeb/Politics/2006/4/140660.htm?KeyWords=
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/details.asp?section=4&issue=9994&article=357349
http://www.ildp.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=594
http://www.copts-united.com/gnews/mixgn.php?subaction=showfull&id=1144497867&archive=&start_from=&ucat=12&
http://www.shbabmisr.com/XPage.asp?browser=View&EgyxpID=5466
http://www.rezgar.com/debat/show.art.asp?aid=61759
http://www.rezgar.com/debat/show.art.asp?aid=61850
http://www.rezgar.com/debat/show.art.asp?aid=61799


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes from Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP):

[i] [CIP Note] This hadith is the subject of controversy and should not be taken as a simple dictum of the Prophet Muhammad, aleyhisalem, our Master Mustafa, peace be upon him.

[ii] [CIP Note] It is unclear if some of the listed names are or are not members of the terrorist group delivering the threat. See the following commentary appeared in the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, written by Munir al Mawry

"Washington D.C. Asharq Al-Awsat A number of Arab intellectuals living abroad, including several Egyptians, has received death threats from a previously unknown group. In an email message, seen by Asharq Al-Awsat, the 'Supporters of God's Messenger (Al-Munasirun li Rasul al Allah) threatened to kill so-called atheists, polytheists and their supporters unless they repent by today. The message was sent to a number of non- Muslim intellectuals and signed by Abu Dhar al Maqdishi, the media spokesperson for the group.

"Asharq al-Awsat spoke to several recipients of the email and asked them about their reactions to its threatening content.

"Dr. Wafa Sultan, who lives in California, pointed out that the source of the latest threat differed from the dozens she had previously received because it was made by a group and not an individual. She expressed fear for her life as the message included personal information about the recipients, as well as the names of some of their spouses and children. Sultan vowed to inform the U.S authorities of the email and seek their protection.

"For his part, Dr, Shakir Nabulsi, a resident of Denver, Colorado, said he was not afraid of the threat as he had received several others before and refused to be frightened by terrorists.

"Refusing to bow to the demands of terrorists, Dr. Ahmad Subhy Mansour, who lives in Virginia, said he would take the threat seriously and indicated the message was probably originated in Egypt .

"The Islamic thinker Jamal al Banna, brother of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, denied any knowledge of the organization calling itself Supporters of God's Messenger, which included his name in a list of 31 supporters. He described its threat as 'nonsense' and said the authors were 'Satan's soldiers.' "

........

Follow Ups:

• Re: Islamists demand killing of two Canadians - UmeAimon 02:14:022007/06/12 (0)
• Re: We must protect Muslim reformers - Paul Marshall 08:55:102006/04/15 (0)
• Re: Islamists demand killing of two Canadians - Steve Majewski 08:33:062006/04/13 (1)
  • Re: Islamists demand killing of two Canadians - Sherry Lis 15:14:542006/04/13 (0)

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