Pro-Regressives masquerading as "progressives"
The Living Tradition Blog has a couple of good articles worth a read:
Tarek Fatah and Canadian Islamic Court
And
Hijacking Tagedy -
Last year I wrote a piece on the collaboration of Neocons and “progressive” Muslims in the war against Islam. I received some negative comments demanding “proof” despite those cited in the post. Well here it is, 2 weeks after the tragic events in London. While responsible Muslim organizations in the US and UK were calling for calm and patience, Ahmed Nassef wasted no time claiming that the culprits had be Muslims.Lets take a closer look at Tarek Fatah, he is on the board of directors of the "Progressive Muslim Union North America" and was one of the founders and moderators of the e-discussion group known as Network of Progressive Muslims (NPM).
A few months back, he was removed as moderator, after he took the e-mail addresses that he had access to, and created a new "progressive Muslim Union" e-list (where he is one of the moderators) - subsequently, he resigned from NPM.
Fatah, has a deliberate propensity to make wild unsubstantiated allegations, just a few examples: on the NPM list he has called officials of mainstream Muslim organizations snakes, supporters of Taleban, having connections with Ben Laden. And just about anyone who disagrees with him on Canadian religious court controversy, he insists, wants to impose "Sharia on Canada."
When he is asked to produce his proof - he commences to attack those who question his authority.
His recent statement on the London bombing includes this innuendo:
Tarek Fatah, communications director of the MCC, said, "For too long the Al-Qaeda and its apologists among the Muslim community have been holding the Muslim world hostage.
Perhaps someone can ask Fatah to identify who these "apologists" are so we can know just who is holding the "Muslim world hostage?"
Intrestingly, on the Islamicity site, the above statement is attributed to Tarek Fatah, but on the MCC web site - the exact same statement is attributed to Niaz Salimi, President of the MCC...
Niaz Salimi, President of the MCC, said, “For too long the Al-Qaeda and its apologists among the Muslim community have been holding the Muslim world hostage.”
hmmm... If you are going to use someone as your mouthpiece, atleast be consistent!
All of this is well known to Omid Safi and Pamela Taylor who are co-chairs of the "Progressive Muslim Union North America" - but they prefer to only whimper a protest once in a great while. And then Omid Safi and Pamela Taylor will talk about how they want self-critique and introspection and all those nice sounding words ---
It appears that they want to attack the Muslim community using Tarek Fatah, Ahmed Nassef, Hussein Ibish, amongst others - and they will NOT hold their own board members accountable for their statements, or actions! Not even when one of their own resigns, after being bitterly attacked, and called a liar by Fatah.
To his credit (if any is to be given to this guy) Tarek Fatah, after some initial flirtation, has distanced himself from Irshad Manji. BUT she did mention him in her section on acknowlegements - and addresses him as her friend here:
2. "'We're not smart enough' is a commonly uttered explanation throughout the Islamic world for why Muslims couldn't possibly have engineered the September 11 attacks." Source and note: This is confirmed by my friend Tarek Fatah, who recently spent time in Pakistan and frequently heard such mutterings.
This is the "Progressive Muslim Union North America"
3 comments:
"We're not smart enough"? I've heard a lot of "reasons" put forth as to why fellow muslims couldn't possibly have been at fault, but that one I must say is news to me. And, I highly suspect, most everyone else.
asSalaam 'aleykum wa RahmatuLlah;
To be honest, I've heard that argument from muslims (arabs & kurds from Lebanon) while working with them: which is funny given the experience of Lebanon with the precision attacks of HizboLlah...
as to what to think of the argument, I think Irshad (and her crew of supporters) really do think they're smarter than 'muslims' - and that's a point of arrogance which should be addressed.
Irshad prides herself on being more articulate and intelligent than her opponents, who often do manage to communicate like they were deputed to defend the intifada and every idiot claiming to be a muslim out there...
It's difficult, I don't think we should be 'reactionaries': I think that the thoughtful response I heard from one Jewish person who told her off deserves to be repeated again and again : "There are people who criticize their communities out of love and concern for those communities, out of a desire to see the best for their people and a desire to avert harm. I don't see that in you. I only sense fear and hatred."
Well articulated by the jewish lady, exactly the words I was looking for....Irshad does not criticise out of concern, she simply vents her own fears and insecurities on people she considers inferior. A period of low self-esteem in her life originated from her embarrassment toward her own ethnicity and cultural background. She 'overcame' this by radically rejecting all associations to her ethnicity, namely religion (which to her is more cultural than soemting divine).
Since she considers any association to her ethnicity and religious background to be beneath her, she acquires 'artifical' confidence.
It is artifical because she only sounds intelligent and articulate when you put her in front of an immigrant muslim with poor english who isn’t entirely educated on Islam. Her self-assurance fizzles away when an enlightened, reasonably educated muslim debates her.
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