Sunday, March 27, 2005

The Urgency of Da`wah (Missionary Work) in the West

Daniel Pipes, a critic of “Islamism,” has proposed the creation of a new “Anti-Islamist Institute” (AII), designed to expose legal political activities of “Islamists,” according to Jim Lobe of the Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS). The draft of a grant proposal by Pipes’ Middle East Forum (MEF), obtained by IPS, reads, “In the long term... the legal activities of Islamists pose as much or even a greater set of challenges than the illegal ones.” “Pipes is also working with Stephen Schwartz on a new ‘Center for Islamic Pluralism’ (CIP) whose aims are to ‘promote moderate Islam in the U.S. and globally’” and to oppose the influence of extremists,” Lobe writes. “It has almost become socially acceptable to engage in bigoted and racist speech about Muslims.” “The ‘extremists,’ according to the CIP proposal, are mainly represented by ... an array of organisations consisting of CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Muslim Students’ Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), as well as ‘secular’ groups, including the Arab-American Institute (AAI) and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC),” he adds.

To preserve genuine Islam in the West, every sincere Muslim has an obligation to educate as many people as he/she can about Islamic beliefs and values. Islam is a complete way of life. We must adjust our lifestyle to our religion—not the other way round. That is, we cannot twist the laws of Allah and His message to fit our convenience or to please a person or group. To accomplish this noble mission, Muslims need to coordinate and unite their efforts to withstand the plots that aim at distorting Islamic teachings under slogans like “Reforming Islam” or “Promoting Liberal Islam.” We need to focus our energy in passing the genuine message of Allah to humanity.

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