This should be read in every mosque in the US.
Thank you, Dr. Jasser
Bill of Rights Day -- A Muslim's View
Published December 15, 2010 | FoxNews.com
As we celebrate the 219th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights today on December 15, it is imperative that we take a moment to reflect upon and embrace the forethought of our Founding Fathers and apply their wisdom to the context that we live in today. This collection of ten amendments to the United States Constitution are what guarantee the sanctity of our individual rights and freedoms and what in the end sets America apart from any nation before or since.The Founding Fathers understood that when left to its own devices, government will eagerly trample the individual God given rights of the people and that it was their duty as enlightened leaders to protect at all cost the humanity of law and the freedom of the individual. They declared for people everywhere that a government by the people must not infringe on the basic human rights of man to speak, worship, and assemble with whom they choose, and that ultimate power and authority rests in the hands of the governed not those that would govern.
When we look at the world landscape 219 years later we can see that the Bill of Rights has allowed America to live true to its design and serve as the best laboratory for freedom and liberty the world has ever seen.
Having suffered the tyranny of Syria's Hafez Assad, it was this promise that brought my family to America in the mid-1960's. My grandfather and father fought from inside and outside of Syria for a greater Middle East that recognized universal human rights, freedom, and democracy. But the secular fascism of today's Bashar Assad, Hosni Mubarak, and Mouamar Qaddafi, is not the only despotism from that area of the world. More and more we are seeing the rise of political Islam (Islamism) as a growing force of oppression within the Muslim consciousness.
My fight today against Islamist radicalism and its supporting Islamist organizations is born from this struggle and will only be won when American Muslims fully embrace the central principles of religious freedom, individual rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and most importantly the Establishment clause, all of which are embodied within the Bill of Rights.
Like America's fight for freedom from Britain's monarchy or even America's fight against communism in the cold war, our war with Islamist radicals is an ideological battle for the individual rights of man. The unifying force behind Muslim radicals is an adherence to the ideology of political Islam and a belief in Islamic supremacy. Just as it was the duty of the Founding Fathers to protect the individual with the creation of the Bill of Rights, it is our duty today as Americans and particularly American Muslims to defeat the pervasive ideology of political Islam and embrace the freedoms and liberty that the American Constitution has guaranteed.
As American Muslims we must accept the mantle of responsibility to bring our faith into modernity and use the example set forth by the Founding Fathers of how faith can thrive when it allows its practitioners the individual freedom to worship as they choose with no faith test for governance.
We must also remember that our nation was built on the ability to openly discuss dissenting opinions on any subject including religion and not allow a victim mindset and political correctness to stifle our ability to solve our problems.
The Bill of Rights is the seminal moment in the fight for individual liberty. Today it is easy to take its importance for granted unless we understand what we lose without its protection. Americans must remember that this document lives so long as we maintain a vigil over its promise and embrace the protection that it guarantees.
Dr. Jasser, a medical doctor and a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, is the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Arizona. info@aifdemocracy.org
5 comments:
I have difficulty to understand why Dr. Zudi keeps beating this dead horse. Islam cannot be reformed doctor. There is no such thing as extremist Islam. Islam is Islam and it is violent and extreme in its core. Muhammad was a terrorist. How can Muslims believe in him and not follow him? What Dr. Zuhdi is asking is absurd and impossible. The only solution is the demand Muslims to leave Islam or leave our countries. Integrate or go back to where they or their fathers came from.
Muslims have no choice. They cannot provide us with a solution. The solution is in our hand and that is to recognize Islam as a political ideology that is subversive and hostile to ours and ban it.
Dr. Zuhdi, please stop promoting these lies and giving Americans false hopes. These are hot air. They are pleasant but worthless. It makes people happy to hear a Muslim making such remarks, but the fact is that either intentionally or unintentionally Dr. Zuhdi is confusing the westerners. He is portraying a deceptive image of Islam that has no basis in reality. Muslims cannot and will not be able to reform unless they denounce the Quran, Muhammad and all their sacred books.
BRAVO!
Ali Sina is my hero. He is one of the very few people who have clarity and courage to say the truth as it is. Even when the truth is very scary.
It is people like faithfreedom who spread ignorance & hatred. If you've never read the Koran how can you make any statements regarding Islam? You're just basing opinions on things you've heard, like tribes people did before everyone had access to an education. Listening to your anti-semitic (look up the word) slurs is like listening to women in huts gossip about the latest old-wives tale. Muhammad was the furthest thing from a terrorist and if you did any reading you would know this. People in the 9th century didn't have means to learn more than what their parents can teach them, what's your excuse?
I agree with anonymous above. one of the guarantees in the bill of rights is the FREEDOM OF RELIGION. as in, it won't "be infringed upon." get it, "faithfreedom.org?" there are no exceptions, so why don't you take your oppressive attitude out of our country, huh? I won't even bother pointing out how ignorant of a remark you've made. just keep listening to fox news and have a nice day...
The Constitution gives us the right of Freedom Of Religion, not Freedom From Religion. I am a Muslim, Navy Vet, and Constitutionalist. Please do Not take my rights away because you don't want to believe that anybody else could be right.
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