[Mb-civic] FW: Pipes in NYSun on "Saudi Venom in U.S. Mosques"

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Farhad Sepahbody" <sepa at sedona.net>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 10:38:00 -0700
To: <grgolsorkhi at earthlink.net>
Subject: Fw: Pipes in NYSun on "Saudi Venom in U.S. Mosques"

 
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From: D. Pipes Mailing List <mailto:dplist at danielpipes.org>
To: sepa at sedona.net
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 6:47 AM
Subject: #532: Pipes in NYSun on "Saudi Venom in U.S. Mosques"

Saudi Venom in U.S. Mosques
by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun
February 1, 2005
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2384
http://www.nysun.com/article/8558

Those of us following the development of Islam in America have for years
worried about the unhealthy influence of Saudi money and ideas on American
Muslims.

We watched apprehensively as the Saudi government boasted
<http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/399>  of funding mosques and research
centers; as it announced <http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/36>  its support
for Islamist organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic
Relations; as it trained
<http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5984>  the imams
who became radicalized chaplains in American prisons, and as it introduced
<http://www.meforum.org/article/603>  Wahhabism to university campuses via
the Muslim Student Association.

But through the years, we lacked information on the content of Saudi
materials. Do they water down or otherwise change the raw, inflammatory
message that dominates religious and political life in Saudi Arabia? Or do
they replicate the same outlook?

Now, thanks to excellent research by Freedom House
<http://www.freedomhouse.org/>  (a New York-headquartered organization
founded in 1941 that calls itself "a clear voice for democracy and freedom
around the world"), we finally have specifics on the Saudi project. A
just-published study, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American
Mosques 
<http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/publications/Saudi%20Report/FINAL%20FI
NAL.pdf> ," provides a wealth of detail on the subject.

(Two points about it bear noting: This important study was written
anonymously, for security reasons, and it was issued by a think tank, and
not by university-based researchers. Once again, an off-campus organization
does the most creative and timely work, and Middle East specialists find
themselves sidelined.)

The picture of Saudi activities in the United States is not a pretty one.

Freedom House's Muslim volunteers went to 15 prominent mosques from New York
to San Diego and collected more than 200 books and other publications
disseminated by Saudi Arabia (some 90% in Arabic) in mosque libraries,
publication racks, and bookstores.

What they found can only be described as horrifying. These writings - each
and every one of them sponsored by the kingdom - espouse an anti-Christian,
anti-Semitic, misogynist, jihadist, and supremacist outlook. For example,
they:
*  
* 
* Reject Christianity as a valid faith: Any Muslim who believes "that
churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an
infidel." 
*  
*  
* 
* Insist that Islamic law be applied: On a range of issues, from women  (who
must be veiled) to apostates from Islam ("should be killed"), the Saudi
publications insist on full enforcement of Shariah in America.
*  
*  
* 
* See non-Muslims as the enemy: "Be dissociated from the infidels,  hate
them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do  not
admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic  law.
*  
*  
* 
* See America as hostile territory: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to  become
a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of
acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways.
*  
*  
* 
* Prepare for war against America: "To be true Muslims, we must  prepare and
be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen  and the
government."

The report's authors correctly find that the publications under review "pose
a grave threat to non-Muslims and to the Muslim community itself." The
materials instill a doctrine of religious hatred inimical to American
culture and serve to produce new recruits to the enemy forces in the war on
terrorism.

To provide just one example of the latter: Adam Yahiye Gadahn
<http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000733.htm> , thought to be the masked
person in a 2004 videotape threatening that American streets would "run with
blood," became a jihadi in the course of spending time at the Islamic
Society of Orange County, a Saudi-funded institution.

Freedom House urges that the American government "not delay" a protest at
the highest levels to the Saudi government about its venomous publications
lining the shelves of some of America's most important mosques. That's
unobjectionable, but it strikes this observer of Saudi-American relations
<http://www.danielpipes.org/article/995>  as inadequate. The protest will be
accepted, then filed away.

Instead, the insidious Saudi assault on America must be made central to the
(misnamed) war on terror. The Bush administration needs to confront the
domestic menace that the Wahhabi kingdom presents to America. That means
junking the fantasy of Saudi friendship and seeing the country, like China,
as a formidable rival <http://www.danielpipes.org/article/401>  whose
ambitions for a very different world order must be repulsed and contained.

To comment on this article, please go to
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2384#comment
<http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2384#comment>
To see the Daniel Pipes archive, go to http://www.DanielPipes.org
<http://www.danielpipes.org/>

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