Myrick Hosts "Moderate Muslim Summit" in Congress; Media Ignores It

(Washington, DC) – Leaders from eight moderate Muslim organizations met on Monday with US Agency heads, Members of Congress and congressional staff at the US Capitol. These meeting were part of an historic Moderate Muslim Summit organized by US Representative Sue Myrick (NC-09). The summit was a first of its kind because it assembled the largest group of diverse Muslims in the US Capitol to discuss issues and policy impacting Muslim communities and societies.

At the summit, Muslim leaders were able to meet with representatives from the State Department, USAID, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense in order to emphasize the importance of having a diverse Muslim voice when addressing Muslim communities and societies. They shared their thoughts and opinions on US foreign policy and aid, and how the US government can do a better job at reaching out and hearing from a more diverse group of Muslims rather than just the largest Muslim organizations who represent a minority opinion in the Muslim community.

“I’ve been working with many of these leaders for several years now,” said Rep. Myrick. “They give us valuable input on policy and provide us with new ideas on how to stamp out extremism in their communities and societies around the word. We set up this summit so we could introduce them to other Members of Congress and US agencies in hopes they will use them as a resource as well. It was very successful and I believe this summit was the first step to empower these leaders so that they will be a strong force in helping our government in combating radical Islamists and extremism”.

Leaders from the following organizations were present at the Summit:

Dr. Hedieh Mirahmadi- President World Organization for Resource Development and Education (WORDE)

Dr Zeyno Baran- Director for the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute

Farid Ghadry- President of the Reform Party of Syria

Manda Zand Ervin the founder and director of the Alliance of Iranian Women

Dr. Ali H. Alyami- Executive Director, The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia

Omran Salman- Arab Reformists Project, 'Aafaq (Arabic for “horizons”).

Dr. Zudi Jasser, American Islamic Forum for Democracy

Karim Bromund, Director of Inter-Religious Affairs for the Islamic Supreme Council of America

Dr Walid Phares, Senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and academic advisor to the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus, moderated the summit. "This first summit of ideologically moderate Muslim American NGOs and leaders held in the US Congress is only a first step in a new direction so that an alternative voice would be added to the debate within the community and about the issues related to foreign policy, defense, national security, and radicalization," said Phares. "This meeting is a sample of the forthcoming initiatives and projects that the NGOs have in mind. Future summits will include a wider circle of leaders and groups. But note that even at this early stage, the Myrick sponsored summit included representatives from various backgrounds: Sunni and Shia, Arab and Iranian, American and foreign born, religious and secular, etc."

Phares added: "the issues discussed with representatives from the State Department, the Defense Department, and US Aid covered a wide range of concerns from terrorism, counter radicalization, humanitarian assistance to community participation in national perception of Muslim public affairs." Phares said that the initial idea, as raised by Representative Myrick who serves as co-chair of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus in the US House, "is to help diversity grow in the debate among Muslim Americans and within the national community on issues important to all citizens." He said that the voices of democracy and pluralism seeking Muslim Americans should be heard by legislators, the Administration and the public."

Source: Walid Phares

Note: American Media could not be bothered to comment on the Moderate Muslim Summit.

Hon. Sue Myrick
Latest recipient of The MASH Award

Arabs must decide - to stop Hamas

By Farid Ghadry

During this Israeli campaign to silence the terror of Hamas, one can discern two voices coming out of the Middle East against or in support of the Gaza operations.

The boisterous voices are those of Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah leader, who a few days ago, verbally attacked Egypt's leadership for not standing by Gazans by opening the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The attack was unprecedented in scope and intensity because it just fell short of asking Egyptians to overthrow the rule of Mubarak. It did, however, heighten anger amongst the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt enough to incite them to rise against their own government.

Other noises come from Damascus and Iran, where the "resistance" has its center of gravity. Both Assad and Ahmadinejad know that a Hamas defeat is their defeat. Those two have incited the Arab street in a show of force and complicity with extremism. And while many believe the fate of Hamas parallels the fate of Hizbullah, reality is that short of a total defeat of Hamas, not to exclude regime change, Palestinians and Israelis will continue to suffer the consequences of an election that brought them more misery than they imagined on that fateful day: January 23, 2006.

On the other side, the majority of voices approving of the Israeli campaign are those who have remained quiet or convoluted in their objections. Many Arab leaders, intellectuals, businesspeople, and even commoners from Iraq to Lebanon, from Egypt to Morocco, from Bahrain to Yemen, believe that Hamas represents deformity of an Arab civilization, one that is in dire need of an overhaul by existing homegrown leadership in Palestine, Syria and Iran capable of that solemn responsibility.

Many ask why fellow Arabs would support the destruction of Hamas and Hizbullah. The answer is simple. Both organizations, in addition to the rule in Damascus and Iran, represent everything that is wrong in the Middle East today: Morally weak organizations or states seeking revenge, extolling resistance, and abetting violence against those who have surpassed us in knowledge and technology.

Hamas, Hizbullah must be destroyed.

Our only chance, as a civilization that invented Algebra and helped usher advances in medicine, astronomy, and literature during an era of co-existence with the west, is to re-create that co-existence. How could we do that if ignorance is our guide and violent men are our leaders? Witness co-existence by the fact that Algebra was invented by al-Jabr just about the same time the Jewish King Omri founded Samaria.

How could Arabs and Muslims help their societies if their program for progress is built upon violence? When was the last time Hamas or Hizbullah issued their 5-year plan to improve the lives of their followers? It will never happen because the failed leadership of both organizations seeks power instead of duty, money instead of benevolence, and longevity in both instead of renewal for the good of their people.

Hizbullah and Hamas must be destroyed and the regimes in Damascus and Tehran must be changed for all Arabs and Farsi people to survive and prosper in an ever evolving world timed in nanoseconds and propagating through quantum physics. Their poisonous rhetoric of violence feeding a frenzied mass of ignorant Arabs leaning on their extreme religion to honor their incapacity to compete with the West is destroying future generations of hopeful saviors of our culture and traditions.

We Arabs must be the ones to stop Hamas and Hizbullah, rather than support their demonic and twisted logic of resisting development, enlightenment, and progress of the region. Even when development and enlightenment stare them in the face, their instinct is to destroy them pretending to safeguard their honor, the mechanics of which supersede all else including a happy life of fulfillment and accomplishments.

So while we abhor violence of all kind, Israel's campaign against Hamas must continue to the bitter end not only for the sake of peace but also to help Arabs realize they have a choice: Destroy like Gaza or develop like Dubai. Will this happen soon? Maybe not, but if a wake-up call and a nudge, once in a while, to pierce through the fog of deceit perpetrated by Syria and Iran is what it takes to see the light, then we stand by the West and Israel in the only hope that an Arab Renaissance in the Levant may actually have a chance of resurrection.

Farid Ghadry is the President of the Reform Party of Syria, a leading US-based opposition group to the rule of Assad and “resistance” in the Levant

Source: ICJS Online