Reforming American Muslims by the American Islam
Written in English by: Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour
Published in English in January 2, 2011
Lately edited by Ahmed Fathy
A. The American version of Islam and the other corrupted version Islam:
Islam is really one religion, but it was abandoned and forgotten by Muslims who are divided into many cults, doctrines, and sects; each has its own religious traditions. Accordingly, we have two types of Islam – the forgotten true and real religion of Islam (Quranism) and the untouchable, 'sacred', sham Islam of those Muslim cults, doctrines, and sects. The forgotten Islam is what was revealed to Prophet Muhammad: the Quran in its unique Arabic language and style of writing. The Quranic language or tongue has its own special terminology. Reading the Quran according to its own terminology will convey real Islam as the religion of peace, tolerance, justice and unlimited freedom of speech and belief. There is a strong connection between American values and this forgotten Islam that can be described by us as “the American Islam.” This forgotten or “American” Islam, was applied during the lifetime of Muhammad, but was abandoned when the Arabs established their mighty empire in the Middle Ages, within the crime that came to be called as the Arab conquest. Within such an Arab empire, those conquering Arabs invented alternative religious traditions to cope with the tyrannical and oppressive culture of the Middle Ages. The Sunnites have attributed these traditions to God and/or to Muhammad, the Shiites to the family and descendants of Muhammad, and the Sufis to their saints. To reconcile the countless contradictions between the Quran and these traditions of the Arab Muhammadans, they have distorted and warped meanings of the Quranic verses to legitimize to their sinful and criminal practices. With the passage of centuries, these traditions have begun to constitute new practical religions that have emerged and supplanted real Islam (the Quran). There are three primary religions for the Muhammadans past and present: the Sunnite, the Shiite, and the Sufi religions. The Sufi religion is more peaceful than the Shiite one, while the Sunnite is the most fanatic, extremist, and terrorist one, especially the Wahabi version of it in modern times. Wahabism is the most extremist sect/doctrine of the Sunnite religion, which is based on the ancient Ibn Hanbal school of thought and doctrine of the Middle Ages that has been revived to form the current Salafist Wahabi Saudi movement and monarchy that produced terrorists like Bin Laden. The KSA is responsible for the rising and emergence of this fanatic, extremist Sunnite Wahabi trend all over the Arab World and inside all 'Islamic' Sunnite schools, centers, and mosques in the USA and the West countries. Through Saudi funding and influence, this terrorist Wahabi trend is hijacking the name of Islam and the American freedom of speech and belief, threatening America and all the free world. The KSA has impeded and hindered any attempts of peaceful religious reform from inside Islam/the Quran; as a result, Wahabism has remained dominant in the Middle East and in the West as if it were reflecting Islam, but in fact, it reflects the culture of the Middle Ages. Moreover, those influenced by the KSA persecute the free Muslim thinkers struggling to reform the religious culture of millions of people whom we call as the Muhammadans. For 25 years, we have struggled against this Saudi fanatic influence in Egypt. Coming to the USA as a political asylee, we find the same Saudi influence within Sunnite Islamic mosques, centers, and schools, as all of them are controlled by the extremist fanatics who advocate the Wahabi fanatic culture of terrorism. For example, the official Saudi translation of The Quranic Chapter One, the opening of the Quran that is recited 17 times through the daily Muslim prayers, purposely mistranslates the final two verses that originally mean the following: “Guide us to the straight path. The path of those on whom you have bestowed Your blessing, not of those who earned Your anger, nor of those who went astray." (1:6-7). The official Saudi mistranslation of these verses is describing the Jews as those who earned the anger of God, and the Christians as those who went astray. This is only one example in this mistranslation/misinterpretation done in purpose among hundreds of examples within thousands copies of this mistranslated Quran that are usually distributed in the 'Islamic' centers, schools, and mosques in the USA to confirm the notion to the gullible minds that Christians and Jews are 'infidels' who, according to the Wahabi faith, should be fought and killed.
B. Two types of fanatic Muslims:
This intentional misrepresentation is one component of the jihad of the so-called 'moderate Muslims' who pretend to be against the fanatic Muslims. In fact, fanatic Muslims are of two types. The frank, outspoken terrorists, including Bin Laden, who explicitly profess their discourse and seek to apply it no matter what. Alternatively, the other type includes hypocritical, covert religious scholars and leaders who claim that Islam is a religion of peace in front of non-Muslim media, but secretly advocate and support the overt fanatics, extremists, and terrorists, considering them to be jihadists rewarded in Heaven. Those hypocritical religious leaders and scholars are more dangerous than Bin Laden, because they keep the religious Wahabi Sunnite culture of terrorism untouchable, ready to produce thousands of fanatic extremists like Bin Laden who claim wrongly they are 'Muslims'. The only way to expose them is to face them from inside their culture, irrefutably prove their enmity towards Islam/the Quran, and show the utter contradiction between their traditions and Islam by discussing, debunking, and criticizing their traditions and doctrines in light of Islam and the Quran (i.e., Quranism). The two types of the fanatic extremist 'Muslims' may tolerate one if one asserts (by empty declarative words fir for Wahabi conferences and forums) Islam as the religion of freedom, tolerance, justice, and human rights and as long as one do not prove one's argument by using only the Quranic verses and neglecting the contradiction between this and what is mentioned in their narratives, hadiths, and traditions that are still controlling their political, cultural, and religious life.
C. It is imperative to use the American Islam against terrorists:
The USSR was an ideology-based entity that collapsed because of its communist ideology that was defeated, debunked, and refuted from within by the Western culture and the new cult of our modern times, the human-rights culture. The USSR was proven impotent when its ideology felt truly to be outdated; it collapsed without firing one bullet, as it died out like dinosaurs. Shortly after the fall of the USSR, a new enemy confronted the free world: that of the fanatic 'Muslims' and their terrorist extremist culture. They are more powerful and dangerous than the former USSR because they belong to a different culture that has a long history in battling against the West (i.e., Europe), and they have pseudo-religious justifications to fight and terrorize the West today (all the first-world countries). Just as the USSR had nuclear weapons, the new enemy has human suicide bombers who are obsessed by their religious traditions and very eager to destroy the West, imagining this as their way to go to Paradise. The West may kill thousands of 'Muslim' extremists and fanatics in battlefields, but these quick fleeting victories will certainly produce millions of similar enemies in the coming decades. The only way to truly defeat them is to fight and refute them peacefully and intellectually from inside their religion and culture, using the Quran.
There are three intellectual and peaceful ways to combat them:
1) By using the secular Western culture: Western institutions can terminate Al-Azhar and other Sunnite and Shiite foundations and can attempt to use Western culture to inform the public through education, media, and mosques rather than allowing the Muhammadans' traditions to be the sole source of influence. However, this is equivalent to using atomic bombs in fighting them; it will succeed only in strengthening the fanatic trends and increasing their base of followers and partisans all over the world. The secular regimes in the Arab and 'Muslim' world once supported a modified Western model, but in reaction, fanatic Wahabi trends have emerged to defend the homeland 'Muslim' culture against Westernization. It is useless to argue in any 'Muslim' (or rather Muhammadans') society using Western values or ideals, because they simply consider the Western people as infidels and enemies of God. If this be case, how could one convince any ordinary 'Muslims' to change their mentalities by this “foreign” intruding culture?
2) By using the so-called 'moderate Muslim' religious scholars: These hypocritical cultural figures could be employed to reform religious life, as is currently being implemented in education and mosques. Those hypocrites are more dangerous than the frank, overt, outspoken extremists and fanatics. In this case, the USA will not be able to control the new kind of war that has emerged recently, but those hypocrites will. As the most ardent enemies of the West and the USA, those hypocrites deceive the USA and use their power and status against America and the West.
3) By using the American version of Islam (Quranism): It is the only best way to defeat all of them in this new peaceful intellectual war of ideas. That explains why it is imperative to institute an Islamic center to preach the American Islam among American Muslims and to face the Wahabi religious terrorist culture. A new center must be established to fight the Wahabi movements peacefully and intellectually from inside the religious culture itself by using the true and original Islamic values (found exclusively in the Quran) that are the same American values and compatible with them, or what we call the “American Islam”. This will produce a new kind of war; the USA can employ the fundamental strategy of facing the 'Muslim' extremists and fanatics from inside their culture. Those extremists and fanatics have already infiltrated the American homeland through the internet, the religious 'Islamic' organizations, and their mosques, schools, and centers. They use the American right of freedom of speech and belief in recruitment and funding to wage Wahabi jihad against Americans (atheists, Christians, and Jews). Encouraged by the absence of a solidly established distinction between Islam and the terrorist Wahabi culture, the fanatics are hijacking the name of the religion of Islam and they manipulate the American freedom to prepare a new generation of the American Taliban members. Therefore, it is imperative to institute an Islamic Center to struggle against them in an intellectual, peaceful way. This “Islamic Reform Center” must use the same tactic of the fanatics, employing their own language and culture inside 'Muslim' schools, centers, and mosques in 'Muslim' communities. It is a long intellectual war that will save the lives of millions inside and outside the USA. This reform will be introduced only through Quranism and our VA-based International Quranic Center (IQC).
D. Reforming the roots:
It is futile to attempt to reform the 'Islamic' schools in the USA without reforming and refuting their religious Wahabi foundations supported by the KSA. Therefore, the Saudis must be placed under great pressure to reform this fanatic Wahabi dogma. Our IQC can easily put this pressure on the Saudis by two means:
1) Refuting, debunking, and exposing the untouchable side of the Wahabi Saudi tradition and history and the contradiction between them and Islam (i.e., the Quran alone) through irrefutable proofs and lines of evidence provided by Quranists.
2) Help the victims of the terrorist crime inside the USA and the West to sue the KSA because it insists on maintaining its fanatic Wahabi dogma without reform and on advocating these fanatic stances inside the 'Islamic' centers and mosques in the West and the USA. Furthermore, the KSA continues to persecute free Muslim thinkers and intimidate them to prevent them from discussing and refuting the Wahabi culture and creed tenets. There are tens of thousands of victims of the Wahabi terrorist attacks. Some of them are already suing some Saudi individuals, but on different grounds. The IQC can help provide lines of evidence to prove the responsibility of the KSA for terrorism. These cases will put great pressure on the Saudi regime even if those people lose in courts after suing the KSA. The international community plays a crucial role in forcing the Saudi royal family to reform its faith if it adamantly insists on keeping it as it is.
E. Americanizing the Sunnite mosques, schools, and centers in the USA:
To achieve this aim, any Islamic Reform Center, like our IQC, should apply these following steps.
1) Make a solid distinction between Islam (Quranism) and the 'Muslim' fanatic culture to expose those who advocate and fund terrorism and misuse the name of Islam and the American freedom.
2) Analyze and monitor the religious materials, curricula, books, and discourse of the fanatic 'Muslims' especially in 'Islamic' centers, schools, organizations, and mosques, within cyberspace and inside the USA to face and terminate the terrorist danger.
3) Recruit free-minded Muslims/Quranists to prepare them to be imams and teachers in the mosques and schools and train some of them to work against fanaticism and extremism in the 'Islamic' schools, mosques, and 'Muslim' communities inside the USA. The fanatics are using American mosques and schools to fight America in its homeland. To eliminate this Wahabi control, these mosques and schools should be provided with pro-American moderate Muslims who could defend America in the name of Islam (the Quran), not by using Islam to fight America.
4) Expose and refute the other side of fanatic extremist 'Muslim' history and traditions before the eyes of the 'Muslim' community via the American version of Islam: Quranism.
Signature:
Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour