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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
altmuslim this week - june 29, 2009 - This week, reeling over the death of Michael Jackson (or is it Mikaeel?), a brutal (and brutally unfair?) new film about the stoning of women in Iran, and our good friend Farah Pandith - the most effective behind-the-scenes American Muslim you've never met - is promoted to a new office by Secretary Clinton.
ASIDES
editor's blog
US outreach to Muslims in good hands - Several of us at altmuslim have had the opportunity to work with Farah Pandith, who has just been appointed by Secretary Clinton to be a special representative to Muslim communities worldwide. (June 27, 2009)

Her name is Neda - Many have died tragic - and silent - deaths in the post-election violence in Iran. But one woman, Neda Agha Soltan, became a symbol with her death caught on video. Here, Neda's fiancee, Caspian Makan, comments on her story in comments transcribed exclusively for altmuslim.com. (June 25, 2009)

CONTRIBUTORS
PODCASTS
altmuslim review 032 - Muslim writers everywhere! We speak about the new wave of Western Muslim literature and interview two authors with recently released books. Our own Irfan Yusuf talks about his memoir, Once Were Radicals and Reza Aslan tells us more about his second book, How to Win a Cosmic War (June 11, 2009)

altmuslim review 031 - Oh, Bama! What does the election of Barack Obama mean for American Muslims, who were both courted and shunned during a long campaign? We speak with American Muslim Democratic activists who were gathered in Washington for the historic inauguration. (March 5, 2009)

ELSEWHERE
State-sponsored Sufism, Ali Eteraz, Foreign Policy, June 10, 2009.

Pushing the Envelope Without Breaking It, Shahed Amanullah, The Mosque in Morgantown, June 2, 2009.

Obama in Egypt: Let the unsaid be said, Zahed Amanullah, Patheos.com, May 28, 2009.

Zahed will be a panelist at Divan 2.0, a debate on the future of the Muslim internet sponsored by the Radical Middle Way at the London School of Economics in London, England, May 22, 2009.

Once Were Radicals (published by Allen and Unwin), the first book by Associate Editor Irfan Yusuf, is released in Australia, May 4, 2009.

Shahed and Wajahat will be speaking at the 3rd Annual Leadership Summit presented by the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals in Princeton, NJ, May 2, 2009.

Shahed will be leading a workshop on Media Strategies & Techniques at the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference in New York, NY, April 24-25, 2009.

Bringing it all back home, Wajahat Ali, The Guardian, Comment is Free, April 9, 2009.

Zahed will be conducting a two day workshop on Blogging and New Media for Italian students at the United States Embassy, Rome, Italy, April 8-9, 2009.

Crusading for Modern Islamic Art, Shahed Amanullah, Beliefnet, March 26, 2009.

Wajahat will be speaking at the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow conference in Doha, Qatar (January 16-19, 2009)

Finding the middle ground, Hesham Hassaballa, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 8, 2009.

Shahed will be speaking about Muslims in the political process at the 8th annual Texas Dawah Convention in Houston, Texas (December 27, 2008)

Skyscraping ambition for Mecca, Ali Eteraz, The Guardian (UK), Comment is Free (December 18, 2008)

Zahed will be leading a technology workshop for European Muslim professionals at the Salzburg Global Seminar, Salzburg, Austria (November 16-20, 2008)

Zahed will be a keynote speaker at the inaugural meeting of the Network of European Muslim Technology Entrepreneurs, in Madrid, Spain (November 14, 2008)

Shahed will be a featured panelist at Red Faith/Blue Faith: Religion in the 2008 Election and Beyond at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC (November 7, 2008)

Let the Global Islamic Conspiracy Begin, Ali Eteraz, Jewcy, (November 5, 2008)

Zahed will be a guest on Press TV's Islam & Life, hosted by Tariq Ramadan, speaking on French and American Muslim experiences (November 3, 2008)

Zahed will be a guest on Irish broadcaster RTE's Spectrum radio show, speaking about Barack Obama and the Muslim factor in the US presidential election (November 1, 2008)

IN THE NEWS
Islamic Society reaches out to other faiths - "ISNA is very interested in extending their connections with Protestant groups," said Rafia Zakaria, an Indiana lawyer and associate editor at altmuslim.com, a Web site that looks at Muslim issues. "Having a figure as high profile as him gives them legitimacy to extend those kinds of alliances with church groups that have a significant amount of power in the United States." (June 21, 2009)

American Muslims, Jews rate Obama’s speech - "He was really pressing for people to say in public what they say in private. Everybody knows what the solutions to a lot of these problems are and I think there is vast agreement on what they are going to be. But nobody really talks about it and puts the cards on the table," said Shahed Amanullah, editor of the Web site altmuslim.com. (June 5, 2009)

A place to explore Muslim American life - "The biggest challenge facing us is more internal - asking the deeper question. Okay, now that we know that we are Muslim Americans or American Muslims, whatever you want to call us, what does that mean?" (May 23, 2009)

The great potential for online Muslim media - "A recent study in the US implies a correlation between non-Muslims who fear Islam and those who don't know any Muslims. The more Muslims get to know their non-Muslim neighbours, the more ability they will have to influence them." (April 29, 2009)

Obama’s entreaty to Islam surprises Muslims - "Here's where the American public is going, and here's where Obama is going and trying to head it off," said Shahed Amanullah, editor and publisher of altmuslim.com. The Bush administration asked Amanullah for help in shaping dialogue with the American Muslim community. "He's heading it off on a global level," Amanullah said. "He's starting at a core of the problem. The core of the problem is the crisis overseas." (April 8, 2009)

CONTENT PARTNERS
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Common Ground News Service

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European Media Islamic Network

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The American Muslim


Gujarat Minister Narendra Modi
Hitler’s avatar tries again
Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat in India, is once again seeking a US visa to visit some of his supporters. As before, those who recall his complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots will endeavour to keep him out.

Nishrin Hussein, a resident of Delaware since 1989, suffered immeasurable trauma in February of 2002. Her father, Ehsan Jafferi a former member of the Indian national parliament and a poet was dragged out of his house and burned alive by a rampaging mob.

In that week over 2000 members of a religious minority were killed and burned, over 150,000 were rendered homeless and many women were raped; often as police watched and stubbornly refused to protect religious minorities in Gujarat, a state in India. According to human rights organizations, Indian government commissions and even US government, the man ultimately responsible for this state facilitated genocide was Narendra Modi, the current and then Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Modi is now seeking a US visa to come and speak to his supporters and admirers in New Jersey in the month of August. His visit also forces victims like Nishrin Hussein to relive their trauma.

Narendra Modi belongs to a Hindu fascist movement that seeks to make India a global power by first religiously and culturally purifying it through elimination of religious minorities. International Religious Freedom Reports, prepared by the US State Department, implicate Narendra Modi's political party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its religious affiliates in systematic killings of Muslims and Christians and burning of their homes and businesses; year after year.

Modi is a self-styled disciple of Adolf Hitler. He has often expressed his admiration for Hitler and even members of his own party sometimes refer to him as the Hitler of India. In Gujarat, Adolf Hitler is glorified in higher secondary school textbooks. Modi and the state of Gujarat's growing admiration for Hitler has even spooked Israel. Former Israeli Councilor General David Zohar Zonshine has made significant efforts to rectify the matter, including holding exhibitions to educate Modi's followers about the Holocaust. But textbooks printed before Israeli protests are still being used in schools.

Modi frightens me. I think he is sowing the seeds of hatred and preparing the people of Gujarat for a bigger and more ominous genocide in the future.

Modi now wishes to mobilize his supporters in New Jersey. Fortunately a broad spectrum of Indians in America, American academics, human rights organizations and members of the US Congress, like Betty McCollum (D- Minnesota) have come together to forge a coalition against genocide (CAG) and are pressing the State Department to reject this Avatar (re-incarnation) of Hitler.

The Indian elite, empowered by recent economic successes, wish to piggy back on the US to superpower status. They wish to forge a new strategic alliance with the US that will facilitate the transfer of critical military technology, attract financial investments, open US markets to Indian businesses and enlist US' diplomatic support for Indian ascendance.

Modi seeks to increase his influence in the US. He also wishes to increase fund raising from the rich Indian American community to finance his politics in India. It is vital to his cause that he has intimate access to the U.S.

At the moment, Hindu nationalist cannot have both; Modi as a national leader and the US as vehicle to global power. As long as Modi is shunned by the US he is ineligible for national office. It is therefore essential for his supporters to purify his image, and they hope to do so by bullying the US government into allowing him entry in to the US. If he was received in the U.S., he will be projected in India as a leader of global stature.

US law on international religious freedom (section 604) prohibits the State Department from allowing people who commit egregious violations from coming to the US. Modi is now enforcing a new law against religious conversions in Gujarat which primarily targets Christians. This single act of curbing religious consciousness triggers section 604 and alone makes him ineligible for a US visa.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedoms has also asked the State department to deny Modi.

The Bush administration has been excellent on this issue, so far. In 2005 it not only denied Modi a diplomatic visa, but also rescinded a valid tourist visa underscoring his status as an untouchable. All the signals from the State Department suggest that the US will reject any new application from Modi.

All politics is now global. The struggle between secular Hindus and minorities and Hindu nationalism has spilled over to Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill. The US cannot stay away. It must engage and fight with the Coalition against Genocide to preserve India's democracy and its pluralistic traditions.

Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

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7 COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE



It amuses me so much to see Mulsim intellectuals terming what are at best riots as 'Genocide', whereas actual Genocides by Muslims in Africa and the Middle east are ignored! Not at all to make light of it - every life lost is an immense tragedy, but how are 2,000 Muslims dying the equivalent of a Genocide? What would you term a million or more in dying Darfur, or the hate in Rwanda, or the Muslim christian hate in Eastern Europe? Or for that matter tens of thousands in Iraq under Saddam? Or even for that matter, historically speaking tens of Millions of Hindus dying in India itself under Muslim rulers?

As much as it should not happen, vendettas are a part of human nature and we should be so thankful that India is so muted in her response to the historical atrocities perpetuated by Muslims there. I am glad you are protesting Modi's visit, but I would like you to be as conscientious about Muslim atrocities too.


Good to see weissputz talking out of the other end of his mouth again. You are about as entertaining as watching grass grow in a window box. Always ready to give aid and comfort to conspiracy theories and minimize the suffering of select goys. As if a bunch of racist East European terrorists give a hoot about Darfur or Rwanda(as the Ethiopian Falashas in Israel about that)

"It is unacceptable that nations made up of people who have only just come down from the trees should take themselves for world leaders... How can such primitive beings have an opinion of their own?"

-Yitzhak Shamir, in reference to the black African nations who voted in support of the 1975 U.N. resolution which denounced Zionism as a form of racism

Judeofascism, and zionist terrorism and atrocities as usual are not a part of this shallow bigot's unconvincing rant.


Good job! "Doctor" M(oron), More hate speech like this is exactly what we need to bring out the true colors of Islam.


Where is the admiration for the Indians when they did not go on a rampage against Muslims in India when the Indian Mujahiddeen planted bombs last week all over India that killed over 50 with the hope that Hindus would kill Muslims? In fact even the BBC said Narendra Modi was very swift in making sure riots did not happen...does not look like he is a Hitler reincarnate to me...Muslims on the other hand have been massacring each other in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!


More Kol Nidre style nonsense from the president of the Baruch Goldstein Appreciation society. Lying through your teeth again I see, Weissputz.
Modi was held responsible for the riots. Do you think what Modi did was right, when he stood by and gave free hand to the Hindu fanatics, by ensuring that the state administration and the apparatus abetted, aided and sometimes participated in the targeted killings of Gujarati Muslims based on their identity? Ofcourse you do! Modi couldn't be like Hitler because it was NOT Jews being targeted. Modi is in-your-face candid about his crimes (like Hitler) which people see as a sign of honesty in comparison to other weak and corrupt leaders who push the same agenda but are not honest about it.
Go back to "Jewish World Review" or whatever crappy zionist gutter you slithered out from.


oops! Looks like doctor moron just joined his friendly, neighborhood local madressah suicide bomber squad! Hijab baba just lost it on another post! At this rate, I will be the only poster left here for Shahid to talk to!


You're a silly nuisance, weissputz, even by Talmudic standards. I guess Uncle Sam's welfare check hasn't arrived in the mail yet. Poor settler scum thinks he's a Semite living 5000 years in the past. The typical pathology of inbred AskheNAZI rejects from East Europe.
And people why shlomos have a tendency of getting thrown out of countries since time immemorial.


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