American Imam and Yale PhD graduate disagrees with labeling Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist group.
Half of the city was shut down (Washington DC). The entire area around the White House because of our (Palestinian Gaza) rally.
As I have said multiple times this is a long-term battle. And one of the things I find very positive – after 9/11 one of the biggest positives it forced us as an American Muslim community to become mature. It was a punch in the gut. The government cracked down on us we had no plan no connections with other organizations we had no networking. And therefore, the damage done to our community was unprecedented. Mosques were shut down, scholars deported, people went to jail. We matured we realized you cannot take this lying down. We need to fight back, mobilize. We realized we have a stake in this country this is our country they cannot do this to us. All of a sudden, the discourse became mature. Take them to court and guess what by and large we won.
Muslim Politicians Advance Islamic Agenda
The Muslim politicians in Congress now all have problematic views about LGBT. All of them are standing up against Israel. There is a person in Congress that can stand up and say my grandmother is getting bombed in Gaza. And she is bringing this plight in a humanitarian manner. All of the Muslims in Congress what is their function? They are defending the rights of Muslims in this country and abroad. We as a community need to start thinking not in 2D but 3D.
Freedom of speech they should not be banned.
The UK announced that they are going to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. If I were in England I would publicly stand up and defend them. This is not a violent movement. There’s no killing or bombing. It is just ideas; ideas that are uncomfortable they are not harming anybody they are not physically punching people. But because they have criticized Israel and have supported Hamas… it’s freedom of speech they should not be banned.
If you are going to ban them because you think they are offensive, then be consistent the far right which is Islamophobic. Why are you selectively choosing who to ban based on what you think is problematic and not problematic. We cannot open this door.
My goal for my Muslim community is that we reach a maturity where we understand that strategically Muslim politicians have a role in advancing the Muslim community.
The Muslim Narrative will Prevail.
Slowly but surely the narrative will change. In the end we will influence and in the end of the day this is what our religion wants us to do. This is your country, and you have to get involved. We are protesting that’s good, but step two is we need to be involved in the process.
In the media they just fired two Muslim senior analysts. And they fired them because they were presenting both sides in an unbiased manner. But we will try again and again and again.