“The time for press releases, the time for simple condemnations of the acts of violence is over,” said Dr. Zuhdi Jasser speaking on Fox News.
At a two-day summit held in DC, the Muslim Reform Movement released a declaration of principles that condemn what Dr. Jasser referred to as “operationalism.”
The Washington Examiner reported:
The Muslim Reform Movement grew out of a summit this week of leaders of groups that were already fighting extremism. Organizers said deadly terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., added new urgency to the effort.”Let’s get rid of political correctness and grab this problem by the root,” said Naser Khader, a conservative member of Denmark’s parliament, in a panel discussion Thursday at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “It is important to draw a line between the Islamic religion and Islamism.”Khader and other members of the group on Friday released a declaration of principles calling on Muslims to reject violent jihad and endorse religious freedom for all and secular government, and saying they will call out those who reject it.
Groups that do not sign the Muslim Reform Movement’s declaration of principles are, “part of the first three or four steps of radicalization and American’s need to realize that,” Jasser continued.
Reporting from the summit in D.C. last week, the Catholic News Agency wrote:
“Too much deflection has been happening on this issue,” said Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. Muslims must acknowledge the fact that radical Islam has fueled human rights abuses and must push for a reformation that involves a “separation of mosque and state” with religious pluralism and respect for human rights, he said. When Islamist extremists commit acts of violence, Muslims must resist the temptation to simply say the extremists “are not Muslims,” emphasized Naser Khader, a member of the Parliament in Denmark of the Conservative People’s Party. Simply denying that the extremists are true believers excuses the moderates from having to advocate for reform in Islam, he explained.“We cannot say that the Islamic State are not Muslims. That is what they call themselves,” he said. ISIS has a state built on a “jihadist vision of Islam,” he said, murdering and enslaving other people “with the Koran in their hands.” “If we the Muslims do not face the problem of violence that links to Islam in our time, how will we ever succeed in ripping Islam out of the hands of these destructive powers and lift our religion into the 21st century?” he asked.
Jasser condemned the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) calling it the “101” course on the radicalization education spectrum.
“The enemy are Islamopatriots that believe in the Islamic State. Muslims that stand against that idea are our allies. Those that apologize for it are our foes. That individual, the Council of American-Islamic Relations, proves that it should register as a foreign agent as part of the foreign agency registration act because it is giving the narrative of ISIS.If ISIS is 601 in classes, CAIR is class 101, 201, as they get radicalized. I would almost want America to stop using the term “radicalization” and talk about “operationalization.” ISIS operationalizes Muslims at that last step. The radicalization in mosques and organizations like CAIR that tell Muslims that America is anti-Muslim, that they’re bigoted, gives the narrative that prevents us from reforming with these principles that we need to have.”
[h/t Katrina Jørgensen at Independent Journal]
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