10 January 2002

Moderate Muslim Activist: 'Time to Stand up Tall and Loud'

Washington - American Muslims have spoken out against Usama bin Laden and other extremists' views of Islam. However, their comments have been largely unnoticed by the U.S. media, a prominent Muslim activist said.

Dr. Maher Hathout, senior adviser of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said "Muslims weren't given a chance to express their ideology" in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. To set the record straight, his organization held a convention that addressed the theme of "The Rising Voice of Moderate Muslims."

"After September 11, we found something very surprising -- that everybody is talking about us except us," Dr. Hathout said in an interview with the Washington File January 10. "Everybody is defining things about Islam and the Muslims, and we thought that the American public would like to know the truth, and Muslims themselves, the mainstream, want to be reassured that they have a voice, so that was the motive behind this."

The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, was thrust into the media spotlight in December when the FBI foiled an attempt by a Jewish Defense League member to bomb its offices. However, the media paid little attention to the organization's convention, Hathout said.

According to the council's attendance tally, roughly 1,000 people participated in the daylong convention December 29, which featured panel discussions by community leaders and experts. Dr. Hathout himself made the opening statements, emphasizing that to be a moderate Muslim is not to "capitulate" in any way to the pressures or the influences of the West, but rather to adhere more precisely to the faith.

"The voices of moderation are not the outcome of a compromise," he said. "It is the real nature of our religion." Hathout said that the Koran teaches moderation in the verse, "We have made you a group/nation of the middle of the road," and when the Prophet Muhammad told Muslims, "Beware not to fall to extremism."

"We felt that it is about time to stand up tall and loud and say here is the nature of Islam according to the text," Hathout said. "If anyone takes any other statement out of context and twists it, this will be like the people who quoted the Bible to justify slavery or to justify the Crusades or the Inquisition or to bomb abortion clinics."

Since Usama bin Laden invoked the Koran and the idea of Islamic jihad in his justification of the September 11 attacks, moderate Muslims have faced much difficulty in explaining their views, Hathout said. The "rhetoric of anger and the counter-rhetoric of condemning Islam," he said, made it necessary for moderate Muslims to reclaim their faith.

"September 11 was a wake-up call for people who were not extremists but were silent. Now they know they cannot be silent anymore," he said. "The voices [of moderate Islam] have been muffled under the noisy voices of the vocal minority, or the opportunistic voices that wanted to taint Islam in a negative way."

Hathout judged the convention, which also featured Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona and U.S. Justice Department official Ron Wakabayashi among others, a success. The high attendance, as well as the positive feedback from the participants, has encouraged the staff to make the convention an annual event.

"We addressed the basics," he said. Next year, "we'll probably go to specifics: What is the meaning of 'jihad'? The difference between jihad and terrorism? When is there a just war, and an unjust war? What are non-violent ways of making changes? We'd like to continue doing our share in clearing the haze that's resulting in misunderstanding."