Darkening Mirrors

The White House is declining to make public the financial histories of the commissioners President Bush appointed to investigate American intelligence failures.
Administration officials say the arrangement has helped to attract the best-qualified people for the panel, but critics say the White House's refusal to disclose financial information raises questions about potential conflicts of interest that could cloud the commission's work.

Citing an exemption to federal ethics regulations, the White House says the financial disclosure statements filed by the commission's nine members will remain confidential because they are not being paid for their work.


A January 30th Daily News article claims MAS and ICNA have published statements supporting suicide bombing. Like so many other lies, this scandalous allegation is apparently based on the based on Steve Emerson sources.

The News article claims that in March 2002, “American Muslim magazine - described as "the voice of the Muslim American Society" - interviewed assassinated Hamas leader Abu Bakr's wife, who said she was ‘willing to give my life and the lives of my children’ and advocated ‘standing beside the families of the martyrs.’ Another article explained that "martyr operations are not suicide."

Obviously, as usual, statements are being taken out of context. If the Daily News itself had published such an interview would they have been accused of supporting terrorism? When mainstream newspapers publish excerpts from Bin Laden are they investigated?

However, at the same time, some of my Muslim colleagues should clearly be more careful. For example, in last week’s Muslims, columnist Yvonne Ridley (in her column Without Prejudice) asked us all to publicize the “powerful” words of would be suicide bomber “martyr” in Chechnya. After acknowledging that innocents will be killed, Sister Yvonne added, “The crime is not what she is about to do—the real crime is what has driven her to contemplate such an act of desperation.”

While the Russian oppression of Chechnya has been horrific, it is not necessary, effective or Islamic to minimize the crime of suicide bombing in this way. This is not the first irresponsible statement I have read in this column. But given the Daily News report that the FBI is also investigating, would it not make sense for this and other publications to consider the risk in publishing such rhetorical expressions of anger? We might feel we have the right to our anger but we have a responsibility to speak intelligently.

Martyrdom has come to mean many things to many people. Millions died in the Iran-Iraq war, and the young men on either side were told they would be martyrs. In any case, you cannot intentionally blow up innocents or harm them in any way and be a martyr. Jut because innocents “go to paradise” is no justification. Cynical nationalistic pseudo-Muslims nevertheless take this line of argument.

So it is not just a matter of one columnist but an extremist trend. We have a responsibility not just to defend the Muslim community from lies and other forms of attack but to ensure that what we are defending remains Islam. Insha’Allah we will take the high road, the straight path.


I am thinking of a story I read in Nizam ad-Din Awliya of a Pious Jew who witnessed the actions of one of his neighbors, a Saintly Muslim. Another person came to him and asked; “how is it that you don’t covert to Islam upon seeing these miracles?” The Jewish neighbor replied, “How should I covert to an Islam as high as that of this man? I wouldn’t pretend. And how should I convert to an Islam like yours? It is not worthy.”

Insha’Allah let us be worthy. It is a difficult time. Much of Europe knows of the injustices taking place in Israel and Palestine, and a poll shows that a very high percentage there think Israel is a major threat to peace. However, the US (and especially the Christian Zionist Right) follows Israel with only the mildest complaint. They may soon be supporting a unilateral “solution” if there is no effective new gesture from the Arab and/or Palestinian side.

To quiet European complaints the more extreme Zionists play up the occasional hate crimes as “pervasive anti-Semitism”. The US Ambassador to the European Union, Rockwell Schnabel, a friend of the Bush family, has even said he thinks the “anti-Semitism is “getting to a point where it is as bad as it was in the ‘30s.”

Let us make a real effort to separate anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism. Mixing the two helps no one. We Muslims also know all too well the effects of hate speech and discrimination. Positive political solutions demand greater precision and accuracy in our speech as well as in our articles.

Islam is a way of life, a way of understanding and a way of being. As individuals and as a community we are asked to make choices with the purest of intentions and to polish our inmost hearts into mirrors for the Truth.